MESA, Ariz. — EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above is from a previous broadcast.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has taken further action against a Mesa assisted living facility taken over by the state earlier this year.
A new amended complaint against Heritage Village Assisted Living adds the complaint of racketeering to the existing complaints of consumer fraud and elder abuse against the facility. It also seeks to take control of two other facilities owned by Heritage Village: Visions Mesa and Visions Apache Junction.
In March, Heritage Village Assisted Living was hit with a complaint that alleges the owners and managers of Heritage Village are incapable of complying with laws and have engaged in "deceptive" practices to conceal the facility's problems and its more than 170 citations from the health department.
New evidence discovered during the lawsuit and by Peter Davis, who was appointed to take over the facility, led to the amended complaint, according to the attorney general's office.
Davis was appointed with "the twin goals of bringing in a new professional management company to improve resident care, and preventing Heritage Village from losing its license to operate in a revocation proceeding initiated by the Arizona Department of Health Services," the attorney general office said.
According to the attorney general office, both of those goals have been achieved and now new owners are being sought to purchase Heritage Village.
In a statement, the attorney general's office outlines the following "new facts" that came to light under the lawsuit:
- More than $2.9 million was diverted from Heritage Village operating accounts at the behest of owners Gary and Tracy Langendoen. The funds that should have been used to pay for the care of Heritage Village residents were instead used to pay debts for other properties in the Langendoen real estate empire or simply transferred directly to other companies controlled by the Langendoens.
- The transfers included at least $890,000 moved from Heritage Village to Visions Apache Junction and at least $52,000 to Visions Mesa.
- The insurance policy for Heritage Village was canceled after the owners failed to pay the premiums. Gary Langendoen raised $200,000 from investors to reinstate the insurance, but he never gave that money to the insurance company. As a result, the receiver had to secure coverage from an “insurer of last resort” at a cost of more than $500,000.
- The Langendoens treated all of the facilities they owned as “one big family,” freely moving money and even supplies between Heritage Village and other facilities in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and California, all without proper accounting or documentation.
- Heritage Village filed at least six license applications with ADHS between October 2022 and August 2023, and every one of those applications was a forgery under Arizona law. Not only did the applications contain false information, but Heritage Village also submitted fake supporting documents (including leases and operating agreements) containing forged signatures.
- While Heritage Village residents suffered horrific abuse and neglect and their rent payments were diverted to uses other than resident care, the Langendoens forced Heritage Village to pay $25,000 per month to one of their own companies for management and accounting services.
It is with this new information that the attorney general office seeks to remove ownership of the other two facilities from the Langendoens.
“This much money moving between facilities indicates that many, if not all, of the facilities, are in dire financial straits, and the Langendoens have no qualms about looting one facility to keep another afloat,” said Mayes.
The amended complaint alleges the following against the Langendoens along with two high-level employees: racketeering activities, including forgery, scheme or artifice to defraud, and illegal conduct of an enterprise.
Additionally, the allegations of consumer fraud and elder abuse from the original complaint have also been expanded, the attorney general's office said.
“Our most important task is protecting the vulnerable residents who are still living in Langendoen-controlled facilities, and bringing in new owners who will run those facilities properly,” said Mayes.