Equity Erased, Part 1: Real Estate Deals Strip Elderly, Poor of Homes, Land, and Inheritances
Many were elderly or Black homeowners in distress. Some were vulnerable to a Reconstruction-era property law abused so often that it has been rewritten in other states, but not North Carolina. And most were left embittered or poorer by their encounters with Buncombe County real estate investor Robert Perry Tucker…
Equity Erased, Part 2: Imperfectly Legal: Forced Sales Hurt Heirs, Poor Homeowners
Five hundred dollars was all it took for Robert Perry Tucker II to gain an interest in an Asheville home that had been owned by a Black family since 1918. Two elderly heirs signed deeds selling their shares of the home to a Tucker company for $250 apiece. With their…
Equity Erased, Part 3: A Box Full of Cash and an Empty Promise
Most homeowners could never fathom strangers acquiring a portion of their property, obtaining a court order to sell it without their consent and depriving them of the value they’d accrued over years or decades of ownership. There are legal protections against that, Tasha D’Ascanio thought — until it happened to…
Equity Erased, Part 4: ‘Missing’ Heirs: Local Attorneys Tell Court That Property Owners Can’t Be Found
At stake inside a Buncombe County courtroom were a grandfather’s legacy and a family’s inheritance. Asheville real estate investor Robert Perry Tucker II had just purchased 10 acres along the Blue Ridge Parkway, but nine siblings in the Lyda family still had a claim to approximately 25 percent of the…
Equity Erased, Part 5: Indiana man says name was used in Buncombe real estate deals ‘without my knowledge’
On paper, Eddie George was a savvy real estate investor, chairman of VLM Investments LLC that bought and sold nearly $1 million worth of properties in Buncombe County in a little more than a year. But George, who is 65 and lives in a modest home in Gary, Indiana, alleges…
Equity Erased, Part 6: Hunting for dead dad’s missing money, grieving son finds pain, anger … and a clue
George Jones died on Christmas Day 2019, rear-ended while pulled over on the shoulder of Interstate 26 in Woodfin. Jones, 85, wore pants over his pajama bottoms, one shoe, two shirts, and a hat. His deteriorating mental state was the only explanation his son, Drake Jones, could fathom for why…
Equity Erased, Part 7: Buncombe lawyers, others accused of fraud
A guardian for a former law enforcement officer has filed a complaint in court accusing three Buncombe attorneys and two others of fraud in a scheme to illegally sell his house and keep more than $40,000 in proceeds that belonged to him. The complaint, filed on behalf of David Shroat,…
Equity Erased: Multiple Fraud Charges Filed Against Key Figure in Watchdog Investigation
A woman at the center of an Asheville Watchdog investigation into real estate deals that netted Buncombe homeowners little or sometimes nothing for their properties has been arrested on multiple fraud charges. Lisa K. Roberts of Asheville was charged with nine counts of notarizing an action by fraud or forgery,…
Equity Erased: Asheville Lawyer Arrested, Charged With Felonies in Real Estate Deals
An Asheville attorney was arrested this week on six felony charges related to Buncombe County real estate deals, and her client, a woman already charged with fraud, was arrested on 32 additional counts of felony forgery. Lisa K. Roberts was charged with forging her uncle’s signature on deeds, mortgages, and…
Reporter Sally Kestin Wins National “Best Investigative Journalism” Award
Asheville Watchdog reporter Sally Kestin’s multi-part series Equity Erased was honored with a “Best Investigative Journalism” award Wednesday night by the national Institute for Nonprofit News. The series, which is continuing, documents how Buncombe County homeowners lost years and sometimes generations of equity to Asheville real estate investor Robert Perry…
Watchdog Reporter Sally Kestin Wins National Journalism Award
Asheville Watchdog won a National Headliner Award honoring the best journalism in the United States in 2021. Equity Erased, a five-part investigative series by reporter Sally Kestin, won third place in investigative reporting for online news sites. First place went to The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful…