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1445 N State Parkway

Bullied By The State Parkway Condominium Association Board

Law firm allegedly sends ‘anonymous’ email to condo owner
…apparently forgets IP address was recorded

By Steven Dahlman

3-May-17 – A unit owner who is accusing his Gold Coast condominium association of “massive fraud” says an “anonymous” email he received, urging him to back off – and threatening him with a lawsuit if he does not – came from a Chicago law firm and he has the IP address to prove it.

Michael Novak says State Parkway Condominium Association is responsible for a $10 million shortfall that unit owners will have to make up for through increased assessments. He wants a court-appointed custodian to manage State Parkway’s affairs and says the 197-page memorandum of law he has filed in state court details “massive fraud, including criminal federal and state tax evasion, oppression, and misapplication or wasting of assets” of the condo association.

His complaints to the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection resulted in three citations from the city against the condo association, as documented in his WordPress blog, Bullied By The State Parkway Condominium Association Board.

On April 7, someone went to the Contact page of the blog and sent the following comment…

Mr. Novak,

I live in the building but I don’t believe we’ve ever met. So I have done nothing to you. Yet you are going to cost me thousands in a special assessment along with the other 159 owners? That is not fair, neighborly or decent. I have done nothing to you. Why are you doing this to me? If this building is as bad as you say it is, then why not take the $400k they offered you and run? Go get a condo in a better building where you can focus on happiness! Why stay here just to be miserable and make everyone else miserable?

I can’t afford a special assessment – it’s going to break me. You are going to cause me to lose my home. And again, I have done nothing to you. Maybe you need to think about someone other than yourself and realize the impact your actions are having directly on the rest of us. Let all of this go, or know that the day we get the special assessment, I will be suing you for that money and I’m sure the rest of the bldg will follow. Stop being so selfish or you’ll force me to do the same.

When the comment was submitted, the unique network location of the sender, called an IP address, was recorded, 198.232.63.87. Checking a whois database multiple ways, the IP address consistently corresponds to a server host named “NETBLK-SIDLEY” belonging to Sidley Austin LLP, a law firm at One South Dearborn in Chicago.

Novak knows of no connection between Sidley Austin and his condo association. He suspects the sender is a State Parkway unit owner who works at the law firm. He says he will try to obtain a court order to find out who sent the email.

To make sure the form was working correctly, he asked his daughter to send a message and the IP address received correctly corresponded to the college she attends.

Timothy Bergen, executive director of Sidley Austin’s Chicago office, did not respond to an email from Loop North seeking comment.