An Illinois man pleaded guilty in federal court for advertising and selling property in northwestern Alabama that he did not own or provide title for after receiving payments from prospective homebuyers to purchase these assets.
Keith Gunter pleaded guilty to three counts each of wire and mail fraud. Gunter said in his plea agreement that he stole more than $200,000 from four victims through his scam.
According to Gunter, the fraud case took place between July 2006 and July 2007 in which he represented himself as a real estate developer and devised a scheme to sell real property on the auction website eBay. Gunter conducted his real estate transactions as the owner of Gunter Development Group and Gunter Development Inc.
In his plea, Gunter acknowledged four fraudulent transactions that occurred in this period.
On Nov. 27, 2006, through Gunter Development Group, Gunter advertised a 1,583 square-foot house for sale in Rogersville. A Chicago man bid $50,100 for the property and wired $50,795 to a GDG bank account. However, the Chicago buyer never received title to the property because Gunter did not own it.
In April 2007, Gunter, through GDG, advertised property for sale in White Oak Village. An Idaho man saw the ad on eBay and negotiated with Gunter to buy three lots with pre-constructed homes for $100,000 each. The man decided to wire two payments totaling $30,000 to Gunter as a down payment but never received anything in return for the downpayment.
A third fraudulent case took place in February 2006 where Gunter contacted an Illinois man and offered to sell him property in a development called Gunter Circle in Lauderdale County. The man mailed Gunter a $30,000 cashier's check for the property but never claimed deeds to the property.
The final transaction occurred in December 2006. Gunter, through GDG, advertised two quarter-acre lots for sale in Rogersville. A Wisconsin woman bid for them online and was contacted by Gunter. She agreed to buy four lots for $7,000, wiring one payment through the Internet for $3,500 and mailing a second $3,500 cashier's check. Similar to the other three cases, she never received deeds to the property either.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 27 where Gunter faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.
