Erickson Communities misuse of nonprofit status, lack of arms length transactions, etc.

Condominium by John McDonald, book cover
Originally uploaded by rllayman

In college, I came across the Travis McGee series of mystery novels by John McDonald. McDonald wrote many other books, including Condomium, which was about the "wild wild west" of real estate development in Florida, how developers controlled local politics, zoning approvals, often built substandard buildings, and shaped the process of creating condominium associations in ways that encouraged self-dealing and extranormal profits.

The book was published in 1977. I probably read it in 1983. I suppose it prepared me for understanding the reality of the Growth Machine in Washington, DC, even before I read Dream City (see this review).

The description in the Washington Post on Sunday ("Charities boosted profits of Erickson retirement communities") of how Erickson Communities used nonprofit organizations for self-dealing purposes sounds right out of McDonald's novel.

Who says we can't learn from the humanities?