Disgraced former broker faces two new lawsuits
Disgraced ex-real estate broker Gathan Anderson — already under a criminal investigation — is being accused in newly filed lawsuits of trying to sell more homes he never owned.
In the latest suit, Catherine Rice charges that she gave Anderson $7,500 in cashier’s checks. She was told the cash would be used as earnest money to secure the purchase of homes Anderson was offering to sell to Rice, according to the suit filed by Jessica Roulette of Legal Action of Wisconsin. Roulette and her client declined to comment.
The suit charges that one payment was made to PEC Ltd., a company that says its mission is “to provide affordable living and to revitalize our neighborhoods,” according to corporate records filed with the state.
Evette Childs, the incorporator and registered agent, did not respond to a request for an interview left at her apartment, which is also listed as the company headquarters.
The second payment went to Inner City Development Project Inc., a group with links to Anderson.
All three of the north side properties, however, were actually owned by the City of Milwaukee, according to courthouse and City Hall records. They have each
since been sold by the city.
In a second recently filed suit, Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church sued Anderson, 44, charging that he collected $5,000 so it could buy back its storefront property that had been seized by the city in a tax foreclosure in 2016. The church owed about $8,000 in water bills, records show.
According to the suit, Anderson laid out a complex scheme that involved the church buying another property so it could secure a loan to buy the church property back from the city.
“On July 11, 2017, Mr. Anderson personally drove me to Educators Credit Union to get a cashier’s check for the amount of $5,000,” Lester Barnes, the church pastor, wrote in the smallclaims suit filed in Milwaukee County. “Mr. Anderson told us we should expect to receive a deed for the property by July 23, 2017. That never happened.”
The financially strapped church is now renting the space from the city for $500 a month.
“We are a small ministry and service a large amount of underprivileged individuals,” Barnes wrote in the lawsuit he filed without the assistance of a lawyer. “This has caused us a hardship with the city of Milwaukee and we need to recoup these funds to be able to continue our ministry work.”
Anderson, who is under a criminal investigation, has been sued three times in the past seven months. Each suit charges that he sold or attempted to sell properties he did not own and was not authorized to sell.
In a series of texts to a Journal Sentinel reporter, Anderson threatened a lawsuit, said previous stories about him were wrong and defended his actions.
“Tell me how do you tell a story with one side, is that journalism, and i’m getting attorney i’ve had enough,” Anderson wrote Wednesday. “You been making up stuff for month shame on you,” he said in a follow-up text.
Anderson has been the subject of several stories in the Journal Sentinel since September. The paper has reported at least four questionable real estate deals involving him. Some people said Anderson attempted to sell their home without their permission, while others said they paid Anderson to buy properties that, unknown to them, he did not own and didn’t have a right to sell.
Police launched an investigation into Anderson last year. He was arrested in September but released without being charged.
“The Gathan Anderson matter remains under investigation,” Bruce Landgraf, assistant district attorney, said this week.
Anderson gave up his real estate broker license in 2014 when he was under investigation by state regulators. As part of his deal with regulators, Anderson agreed that he would never receive a Wisconsin broker’s license again.
Anderson was first sued in September by Robert Yorker, a retired Milwaukee man, who said Anderson twice “sold” a vacant home that Yorker owned on North 46th Street without his knowledge or permission.
Yorker said he learned about the bogus sales when he was attempting to sell his property but was told records showed it had already been sold twice by Inner City Development Project Inc. A one-time nonprofit, ICDP has had its IRS standing as a charitable group revoked for failing to file financial documents.
Yorker later learned people were living in the house.
“Yorker’s personal property was removed from the 46th Street property, including his air conditioning unit, furniture, tools, mature trees and other property resulting in actual damages in the amount of $28,375,” April Hartman, Yorker’s attorney, wrote in a court filing asking that Anderson and two others be found in default for failing to answer the lawsuit.
The suit is asking for about $200,000 in damages from Anderson, the two men who “bought” the property and Inner City Development Project Inc. Years ago, the group was a well-respected nonprofit that pushed for housing and criminal justice reform.
Recently the group has faced controversy when the Journal Sentinel disclosed it had repeatedly purchased taxforeclosed properties for $1,000 each and then quickly flipped them for large gains, in one case making $44,000 on a north side house it bought one week earlier.
The group was able to buy the homes at a deep discount because it represented itself as a nonprofit, even though it had lost its tax-exempt status.
Anderson was a board member in 2010, according to the group’s filings with the state. He rejoined the board in 2016, the records show.
He was taken off the board last year, according to annual report filed with regulators Oct. 27. That same week, a private detective served Anderson with the Yorker lawsuit while he was atthe district attorney’s office, according to an affidavit by Hartman. She declined comment.
Contacted about the lawsuits, Amun Bordain, an ICDP board member and the group’s designated contact person, told a reporter “no comment” and hung up.
In his texts, Anderson implied he had put more than a hundred low-income families in homes while repeatedly attacking the Journal Sentinel coverage of him.
“You ran false storys for weeks,” Anderson wrote. “You want to make a name off of me sad.”
He added, “You lied hurt people business forced stress on my family son was picked on at school wife left and yet i still stand, why cause of God knows my heart.”