Feds grab gold, cash from man in HOA-foreclosure home-buying scheme
Federal authorities have seized gold, cash and other property from a Wake Forest man accused of fraudulently scooping up homes in foreclosure.
Posted — UpdatedXavier Milton Earquhart is being held without bond in the Harnett County jail on 14 counts of bank fraud, five counts of engaging in monetary transactions involving criminally derived property and one count of aggravated identity theft.
"Everything that occurred with this house was lawful," Earquhart told WRAL News at the time. "To say the least, it was very traumatizing."
But the arrest kick-started a federal investigation into Earquhart's real estate transactions.
Authorities allege Earquhart illegally obtained eight properties in Wake Forest, Cary, Holly Springs, Durham and Charlotte through homeowners association foreclosures, using aliases to bid on properties and funneling money through holding companies. He would produce fraudulent documents showing the mortgages had been paid off and that he had clean titles to the properties and would liquidate the holding companies as soon as the properties had been resold, according to an indictment.
"He goes to sell the property or put a mortgage on the property. Someone does a title search. They see he owns it. They see that the mortgage has been satisfied. Of course, they don't realize it's fraudulent, and so the bank loans money," said James Oliver, a real estate attorney with Hatch Little & Bunn in Raleigh, which isn't involved in the case.
A forfeiture order filed this week accuses Earquhart of quickly turning almost all of his $1.3 million in profits into cash to make it harder for authorities to find. But the IRS was able to track down $44,000 in cash from various bank accounts, as well as $225,000 in gold coins, $100,000 in equipment for a recording studio and numerous prepaid debit and gift cards.
Authorities also seized Earquhart's 2016 Toyota Highlander, computers, cellphones, several bogus notary stamps and a .45-caliber handgun found in a Texas storage unit. Authorities noted that Earquhart is a convicted felon and isn't supposed to have any firearms.
"I'm glad the justice system found a way to catch this guy," said E.J. Stern, one of the Coral Bell Drive neighbors who first alerted police to Earquhart three years ago. "It's good to see people who aren't doing the right thing, making bad choices, be accountable for those choices."
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