Just over two weeks after Success Real Estate suddenly shut its doors on December 14th, three lawsuits have been filed against the agency with offices in Marshfield and Braintree.
Two lawsuits were filed on Monday in Plymouth Superior Court, and a third in Plymouth District Court last week.
Twelve out of the 13 plaintiffs listed in the legal documents are realtors who worked for Success Real Estate. They claim the agency’s owner, Stephen Webster, stole and/or embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars that were supposed to be in escrow.
According to attorney Bob Ahearn, who is representing the plaintiffs, there are three different categories of why they’re owed money: 1) realtors who never received commission checks after closings, 2). bounced commission checks dating back to September, and 3). people who’ve loaned money to Success Real Estate Owner Stephen Webster.
“I’ve got one client who has 15 commission checks that have bounced, and they total over $100,000,” Ahearn explained.
He believes the money owed is just the tip of the iceberg, they’ve heard from realtors who have closings coming up in the next few weeks where there’s supposed to be money held in escrow at Success Real Estate to be brought to the closing. At this point, the closings aren’t going to happen unless something drastic does.
“It’s going to affect not only just the agents themselves for their commissions, but other innocent buyers and sellers of their homes,” Ahearn says. “It’s going to get really ugly; I think.”
At this point, the discovery phase will come next where they’ll try to get ahold of Webster’s bank records to determine what happened to the money that was supposed to be in escrow.
Ahearn isn’t optimistic that the plaintiffs will get paid 100 percent of the money they’re owed because Webster likely doesn’t have it.
However, he says the judge allowed motions in all three cases for real estate attachments for both of Success Real Estate’s properties. Meaning, that if they’re able to secure those assets, the money from the sale of those properties will help pay the plaintiffs seeking damages.
Success Real Estate has been in business for 32 years and recently boasted billions in sales over the last five years.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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