Former NC Gov. Linked to Fraud
September 20, 2009 by Mark Ellis
Filed under Business
According to an official from North Carolina’s Carteret County, former governor Mike Easley and his wife, Mary, have been named as one of the buyers of a property whose price was overstated in tax records. This worked out to a $137,000 discount on the home that was not recorded in the $550,000 purchases price.
A county tax supervisor stated that distorting the purchase price of one home can result in distorted appraisals for other homes in the area. The transaction factors into a larger mortgage fraud case in which more than 200 plaintiffs have stated that they were deceived into paying artificially large prices for coastal lots.
While nobody involved in the case has actually stated that Easley was knowingly involved in committing fraud, the fact remains that several other prominent North Carolina politicians have also purchased similar coastal lots. The lawyers involved in at least one of the lawsuits have stated that the problem in this situation is that the customers had no way of knowing that their prices were artificially inflated.















