A gripping story of how directors and managers in charge of a condominium conspired to part owners from millions of their dollars. Election rigging, deceitful procedures, excesses by management, inadequate legal guidance, apathetic owners, all contributed to the large sums swindled from the owners of the Gran Capitan condos in Santa Maria, California. Although trusted by the owners, directors failed them and the homeowners association, by preferring manager interests. Crooked operators benefited through owner inertia, and their ignoring of the need to be on guard in the unusual environment of a condo scheme. When the owners woke up, far too late, the challenge of remediation was very big, yet persistence by a few owners who also knew right from wrong started to turn the tide, and at length a partial solution appeared. But millions of condo owners' dollars had been lost.