Local Couple Charged In Home Equity Scam Area Homeowners Victimized For $266,000, Officials Say

A Spokane couple was charged Friday with an equity skimming scam that authorities say cost area homeowners more than $266,000.

Tony Napier was named in a seven-count criminal complaint filed by Spokane County authorities, and a civil complaint filed by the state attorney general’s office.

His wife, Alicia Napier, was named on one criminal count, as well as the civil complaint.

The Napiers are accused of buying homes using short-term financing provided by the homeowners themselves.

The couple then would take out other, larger loans on the property, usually from Inland Acceptance, a limited partnership also named in the attorney general’s complaint.

In the process, Inland ended up with first claim on the home if the Napiers defaulted on the loan.

Usually they did, according to the complaints.

The end result: The Napiers pocketed cash from the loan while the homeowner was left with nothing or a property encumbered by liens in excess of its value, authorities say.

The complaints say five different couples or individuals were victims of the Napiers, who reportedly have fled the area and could not be reached for comment.

They do not have an attorney.

Inland Acceptance general partner Glen Ekstrom said he was surprised to be included in the state’s lawsuit against the Napiers.

“He wasn’t able to meet some of his obligations,” Ekstrom said of Tony Napier. “Surely we didn’t have anything to do with that.”

Victims said Tony Napier frequently reassured them by displaying a Bible when confronted with concerns about the loans or his company, No Money Down Homes Inc.

Timothy Re said he sold No Money Down Homes his Clarkston, Wash., home for $110,000 in 1995. Re financed $39,000 of the transaction, and Napier borrowed another $74,000 from Inland Acceptance.

Napier gave Re $53,000 to repay an existing loan on the property, and kept a balance of $24,000. As part of the deal, he was supposed to build a home for Re in Chattaroy.

Napier also agreed to let Re’s disabled father remain in the Clarkston home as a renter, Re said.

The Chattaroy home never was built. Re, jittery after months of stalling, appealed to Napier.

“He hugged me and he grabbed a Bible and he said ‘Tim, with God on our side, we cannot lose,”’ Re said. “He used the Bible a lot.”

Napier ultimately defaulted on the $74,000 loan.

Re estimated Napier now owes him almost $60,000. And Re’s father had to buy the Clarkston home out of foreclosure in order to stay there, added Re.

Jim and Linda Wright made a deal with Napier after their Spokane Valley home had been on the market nine months. The desperate couple had already relocated to California, and Napier played on their Christianity to ingratiate himself, Linda Wright said.

She said Napier would offer to swear truth on a Bible when he could not produce financial statements to back his claims of million-dollar credit lines.

They loaned Alicia Napier $46,000 to buy their $100,000 home, with the note due in six months.

Alicia Napier then borrowed $67,000 from Inland Acceptance at 45 percent interest. She defaulted a few months later.

Informed in February 1996 of a pending foreclosure, the Wrights sued.

In December, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Michael Donohue gave the California couple first claim to their former home.

Inland was forced to buy the property.

Although the transaction with Inland almost made them whole on the Valley property’s value, Wright said, the couple is out of pocket for airfare and other costs.

Now, she said, “We trust nobody.”

The home, which she called “a doll house,” was rented after Napier bought it. The tenants let their dogs run wild inside.

“It was totally destroyed,” Wright said. “That’s the part that breaks my heart.”

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