Together, investigators said, they benefitted from credit cards, bank accounts and cell phone plans that Lopez fraudulently opened in the complex's name but used almost exclusively to benefit himself and his friends.
"That money could have gone into reserve funds for repairs, maintenance or upkeep," said one Plymouth Hill resident who declined to be named. "Instead, the condo council didn't notice and kept raising our condo fees every year."
When contacted to discuss the allegations against him Monday afternoon, Lopez responded, "I'm not going to say anything to anyone."
Lopez, the son of famed New York big band leader Vince Lopez, had worked for nearly nine years at Plymouth Hill, just north of the Plymouth Meeting Mall. He was fired in January after his alleged theft came to light.
The complex's condominium association council requested an outside audit of their accounts after noticing several suspicious transfers. Lopez had access to those accounts but any movement of money required signatures from at least two members of the condo association council, President Carole Graham said.
But the results of their probe - and a subsequent police investigation - revealed much more than simple graft.
Investigators allege that even as Lopez worked his 9-to-5 as a handyman responsible for maintaining the grounds of the 337-unit complex, he lived a lavish lifestyle more appropriate for a celebrity like his father, who became one of America's best known band leaders before his death in 1975. (The younger Lopez kept the tradition alive, playing the trombone in his own reboot of the Vincent Lopez Orchestra at area venues.)
Lopez often rented limos, took lavish trips and bought expensive dinners for friends - all on Plymouth Hill's dime, said an acquaintance quoted in the probable cause affidavit filed for his arrest.
