Cliff Buchan
News Editor

A receiver appointed by a federal court will collect nearly $269,000 in assets from a home on Hilo Lane N. that was owned for a short time by Neulan D. Midkiff.

A settlement agreement approved in U.S. District Court of the Eastern Division of Texas last month will allow Hays Financial Consulting of Atlanta, GA, to collect $268,828 in assets from the Forest Lake home that is now owned by Fred and Sandy Dewall, local real estate agents who originally sold the home to Midkiff in 2005.

Midkiff is just one of multiple subjects accused by federal agencies for running a purported high-yield investment program that raised millions of dollars.

The bank deposit program encouraged investors to invest substantial amounts of money through promises of high monthly interest payments ranging from 4-12 percent per month with no risk to their investment principal.

The federal district court in Texas appointed the Hays firm late last year after the Security and Exchange Commission moved to freeze assets of Midkiff and others implicated in the bank deposit program.

The home on Hilo Lane is part of a long list of personal items including a second home in Forest Lake that was seized by federal authorities.

Midkiff and his wife, Donna, purchased the Hilo Lane home on June 10, 2005 from the Dewalls for $1.3 million under a contract for deed. Federal court records filed in May indicated the Midkiffs paid the Dewalls a $223,500 down payment and were credited an additional $36,500 for a 2004 Lincoln Navigator which was transferred to the Dewalls.

The Midkiffs made a second $100,000 payment last August and made $9000 payments to the Dewalls in August, September, October and November of 2005 as part of the contract for deed.

Court records also indicate the Midkiffs spent more than $100,000 and possibly several hundred thousand dollars improving and purchasing furnishings for the home.

Records show the Midkiffs invested more than $375,000 on the property.

In January of this year, the Dewalls executed a purchase money mortgage encumbering the property in favor of Lino Lakes State Bank, now Patriot Bank Minnesota, in the original amount of $967,000. The home was repossessed by the Dewalls in January.

In an effort to resolve the dispute, the Dewalls and Hays reached a settlement agreement in May. In it, the Dewalls agree to pay $268,868 to the receiver which takes into account a share of the down payments made by the Midkiffs and money from the Navigator.

The funds will be placed in the receiver estate. The pool of money will eventually be used to make payments to the hundreds of investors who were bilked under the bank deposit program.

Midkiff and other principals in the case are accused by federal officials of engaging in acts that constitute violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

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Forest Lake Times
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Forest Lake, MN 55025
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