Civil complaint claims she hid assets in effort to avoid mortgage debt
Lansing — The U.S. government is seeking forfeiture of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway's posh second home in suburban Orlando, Fla., claiming she and her husband hid the asset to defraud a bank and escape $600,000 in mortgage debt.
U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade's civil complaint filed Monday claims the justice and her husband, attorney Michael Kingsley, "systematically and fraudulently transferred property and hid assets in order to support their claim to (ING Direct) that they did not have the financial resources to pay the mortgage on the Michigan property."
News of the complaint, first reported Tuesday on detroitnews.com, came as Hathaway and her attorney spent the day tamping down rumors she's going to resign from the high court because of an FBI investigation of her real estate transactions.
The federal complaint alleges Hathaway and Kingsley engaged in bank fraud and money laundering, but neither has been charged criminally.
"It doesn't mean that she will be charged with any crime but it does say that this property (was obtained as) a result of criminal conduct," said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor who handled bank fraud cases.
By Chad Livengood
From The Detroit News:
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