Kouri Richins Preliminary Hearing - Day 1 Part 2

[Music] Mr B just checking it ready to go yes you are Miss Nester ready to go yes sir okay let's go back on the record Mr burm the state's next witness the state's next witness your honor is Brook Carrington is Carrington let's just SW do you Sly swear the testimony about to give the matter before the court to be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the TR subject penties fory Mr take away and to increase the likelihood of a disaster is that the witness notebook cuz we're putting water next to a notebook and that is the witnesses not okay that's what I would do now miss Carrington's a lot better than me thank you very much can you please State your full name and then spell your last name for the record brook Carrington k a r r r i n g t o n mam are you employed yes how I am a forensic accountant do you have uh work for a firm or have a firm I have a firm KF square and how long have you practiced in this field uh over 30 years now did you testify as an expert in this case at the detention Hearing in June of last year yes I did what sort of documents did you to review if any um in preparation for today's testimony I reviewed um financial documents that include bank account statements um real property documents that are recorded like trustees warranty Etc I've also reviewed loan documents which includes promisory notes the applications the um documents that memorialize the terms the loans I've reviewed insurance documents which are the applications and the policy documents um the there's also a a large body of email communication associated with uh different loan applications and insurance applications okay so to be clear that would be things like um maybe someone submits an application and then there's some follow-up communication between a A lender and a borrower that's correct okay um what bank accounts did you look at uh what I'm sorry what banks or credit unions other things did you look at primarily there are a number of them but primarily America First Credit Union um PenFed Credit Union um maybe Federal Credit Union UCCU which I believe is Utah Community Credit Union okay so um let's look at the bank accounts from afcu from America first um were there a number of those accounts associated with the defendant and her family yes okay let's um talk about well there's some associated with their children yes okay leaving those to the side see that's why I don't have water next to me um let's look at the adults um what accounts and let's refer to them to the last four digits of those uh accounts what ones did you look at uh primarily the K Rich's realy account which is 5677 you sure it's 5677 6577 sorry about that um their uh joint Eric and Mr richens and Miss richens had a joint account 224 Miss richens had a personal account which is 5244 and then the CN masonry account which is uh 7664 um this 6577 the richens realy um did Eric richens have access to that account that you could see not that I aware he was not a signer I don't see any transactions that indicate that he would have accessed that can you generally uh conceptualize how um 2204 that joint account is used that appeared to be the um account where typical household expenses were paid the mortgage on the house the um credit card payments the kids expenses insurance payments um various things associated with the family purchases at the grocery store things like that yes okay um are you um through this um work you've done for um the county and let me ask this question were you originally hired by the um some the estate or someone else before being hired by the county yes I was who who hired you I was brought into the case to work on behalf of the estate of Eric rions okay and so I worked on that case but then when I was hired um by suit County I ceased my engagement see so in part of your work did you ever uh become familiar with a uh premarital agreement yes okay I'd like to refer your attention to uh docket number 106 okay did you um in your work did you examine this document yes I did and what is it this is the premarital agreement between Mr richens and miss richens and um I'd like to further direct your attention to section two of that document in section two is there something relevant to today's inquiry yes this section states that the the business C and masonry would retain its character as separate property belonging to the husband even if uh funds were comingled that's correct personal and professional but was there an exception to that yes if um if the husband should die prior to the wife then the his interest would transfer to her so what was uh K Rich's realy that is Miss Rich's business uh primarily in the real estate business um did she have other businesses that you're aware of yes she did um do you know when that business was formed yes when in um April of 2019 i' like you uh to take a look at States exhibit 19 please what is that this is the certificate of organization of C Rich's realy LLC does it indicate when the company was formed it does on yes it does what is the date April 26 2019 and um does it also um give an address for this business yes it does what is that address 282 Willow Court in count as Utah okay is that in seit County do the inv best to your knowledge it is in seit County yes just generally speaking how does this type of business work that Miss richens was involved in she appears to me that she was a a licensed real estate agent so she did sell buy represent buyers and sellers but primarily she was involved in fixing and flipping homes so she would buy it fix it then sell it is that what we're getting that's correct um this began then in 2019 that's right were there other purchases uh or transactions that predate 2019 yes and where did those take place those were in South Carolina okay so um the market in 2019 um do you have any idea of what the market was like real estate market Market was like in 2019 um yes it it was robust meaning properties could come up for sale and be gone within a matter of days I think that's the fair statement yes okay what were the interest rates like conventional loan interest rates then versus say today fairly low they were still very very low at that time okay rough neighborhood average well depending on your loan but um two to four or 5% um safe to say that's a little different today safe to say yes okay um so in that business um it would seem to me that you would need to be able to act quickly to obtain properties before they're suddenly off the market is that I think that's a fair statement yes okay so how do the practitioners of that this type of business work it would seem you'd need some Capital somehow that's correct and and what are the possible sources for Capital a business in in that field could have its own Capital um it could um borrow from financial institutions they could borrow from uh friends or whatever um hard money lenders okay um or have investors okay so um what do you mean by hard money lenders hard many lenders are um well soft many lenders would be like traditional financial institutions where it's a conventional loan there's a conventional loan application process due diligence by that um financial institution or um and and they're typically regulated by state and federal agencies and then hard money loans are called that colloquially because they have more strict terms the harder terms usually higher interest rate um very definite Zero Tolerance uh default clause usually okay so um I guess the advantage of a conventional loan would be um lower interest rate uh the disadvantage would be response time because of the due diligence required that that would be yes the others are more responsive in time but have these more Draconian Clauses yes prior to the April 26 2019 date was there something else that you found that was imported for our inquiry today yes what was that um the home equity line of credit that was um uh taken out on the on the home on the the family home the marital home the the home on Willow Court Willow Court where the family lived yes do you know whose name that the first of all was there a mortgage on that home that preexisted do you know uh who who name was on that mortgage the the home was owned by Eric richens and the um the home equity loan that was taken out was also in the name of Eric richens could you give us a very brief description of what a home equity loan is it's a a a line of credit typically that um is established it's there's a loan application process there's a uh a line of credit that's established that um someone could tap into their Equity that they already own um so you could make Home Improvements or whatever you wanted to do with I suppose a person could tap into it for any number of reasons um in this case um there was uh home equity line of credit for how much 250,000 and when was that that was in March 2019 and so does this in effect is it secured by the Home itself it is yes okay so this is essentially a second morage your honor I know this is an expert but we're doing a lot of meeting so I would just object and ask if we could maybe let the expert be the expert here and object I think it's just Ling Foundation it's so overrules but if we can keep it moving do you know if this was um uh there was any in order to obtain this I guess is where we need to go with this in order to obtain this loan home equity line of credit on a home owned by Eric richens how does how does that happen there's a loan application process and and in this instance it was signed by Miss richens referencing a power of attorney okay I'd like to direct your attention to States exhibit 123 States exhibit 124 we'll take 123 first you talking about the dockets yes I'm sorry docket number 123 and 124 okay yes I got those do you recognize those two documents yes is there um a difference on the date it's signed by the um reported author of it I guess yes what's the difference in the data uh docket 123 is signed and dated 5813 and docka 124 is signed dated 58 18 um during your uh investigation and and examination um are you aware of whether those uh docket number 123 and 124 came under suspicion they were okay like to direct your attention to State's exhibit or docket number 127 dock number what 127 I do not have a 127 never mind yes it is out of order that is okay totally my fault okay do you know what that is I do what is it this is the expert report by uh Matt and um those um he examined three question documents is that right that's right okay and 123 and 124 are they any of those question documents those are two of the three okay I'd like you to take a look at now um L control see it's always right here we do have it right here I think we have marked them as States exhibit 70 for the court um I approach the witness I'm not sure she has St exhibit go ahead can you please just describe uh or the title of that document for the record number 70 this is the Willow Court loan advances and payments okay um when is the first withdrawn on that home equity line of credit it's March 26 2019 $60,000 when is the next withdrawal August 5th 2019 could you describe the next um couple of withdrawals on that following that that uh $2,100 in August there are a series of withdrawals for the next few months okay in August is there more than one or just the one for there's several okay um does that strike you as important for today's yes purposes um would you explain to the court what you draw from that beginning in August of 2019 this is um around this time is the first property that Miss richens um purchased after obtaining her business license it's a home in Heber City as far as I know that was her first um home in Utah that she flipped we have States exhibit 71 Mr are you offering State 70 yes yes I will be offering State 70 and 71 um as uh summary charts okay is NE any objection no sir okay 70 and 71 ad could you read for the record the title of 71 incumbrance and real property chronology trust deed summary so what um does that help you State for the record what that first transaction was and where and uh yes okay it's the 550 house uh the first warranty involving K Rich realy was August 1st of 2019 okay now I'd like to portray that in another way did you prepare a timeline bar chart yes um does it depict much of the same information just in different what different format yes would that be helpful conveying your testimony for that yes okay state would offer States exhibit uh 69 and we're just going to go the first chart is the any objection no sir States exhibit 69 is admitted that's the whole PowerPoint I'm sorry it is but I've only laid U foundation for the very first is that the bar chart you were just referring to yes okay and so um can you just explain for the judge where how this chart Works sure um I think you've seen this before and the colors don't mean anything they're just to distinguish one line from another I've just got the the years along the top um and the months and then going down the different properties just as some sort of a an illustration to depict when properties were held at any particular time and then within each bar is the address of of the property purchase right and so if you wanted to know what was held in June of 2021 you could draw a vertical line to see which properties were owned at that time I see okay so any more purchases in 2019 by K richens real not that I know of there could be others but this is what I have been able to compile how about in 2020 2020 yes there were there were others okay okay how many purchases by K Rich's realy of property in 2020 I think there were just the five I see uh is there one that stands out to you in 2020 yes not partic well the the France and Lane one toward the end of 2020 in October of 2020 I seeon Lane property in Oaky I see um let's drill down into the Fran L property you said uh when was that purch was acquired in October of 2020 um is it different from the previous uh five I guess County 2019 yes in what ways was it different it was um a more robust project more ambitious project um in um amount you know was it was I think wired it for 1.3 million and the others had been somewhere in the neighborhood of like three or four or $500,000 did she uh require money outside money to make this investment yes okay um what sort of investors um they were um hard money lenders um do you know who they were yes who are they uh Sierra West Capital was the primary lender which is this as is the case on several of her properties and then there were other investors who um contributed the funds basically for the rehab I see okay um was there something else different in this application that you garnered from the all the financial records I'm sorry I didn't understand your question that's the way I roll okay was there something else that you found in reviewing the all of the documents not just the the L documents that distinguished this purchase as opposed to the ones that had gone before it um involving all right how about this um do you know if CN was involved in this project CN was involved in this project okay and what did you discover about cn's involved during the after the acquisition of the Oakley property the Fran Lane property c um there are several checks from Cene that were deposited to the K Rich's realy account and they specifically have a memo on them that tie them to this property and so over the next um between October and when this property was sold in March of 21 there are a series of checks I think there six or eight checks that are um about 130 $133,000 a um was this property ever sold yes it was when in March of 2021 okay um uh how what happened to the proceeds from that sale This was um this was a a property where the net proceeds were about $466,000 which came into the K Rich's realy account that 6577 account and then from that um 217,000 was paid directly to CN okay and then there were some other payments transfers out from the account that were associated with this property as well and left her with about um well around $200,000 in net proceeds um in your uh examining of all the evidence in this case were there other things that you looked at to inform your uh examination um that took place in October of 2020 there were other things in October of 2020 yes did you um take a look at States exhibit 22 if you would are you familiar with that document yes could you explain what it is this is um an intake um form from a a divorce attorney describing that Eric richens was wanting to consult uh with with his attorney on a potential divorce and it's dated um October 8th of 2020 in um the wake of that are you aware of any other instruments that were created um out of that yes there are the notes that the attorney um um appeared to have handwritten during the course of that first meeting did were there Financial arrangements made after that meeting that you're aware of yes uh the the notes indicate that there was um some new information by Mr richens that there was the the hilock had been um taken out on the home that as if this was new and then from this he um set up the Eric Rich's living trust and also a will was there something dramatic different about the trust situation is before the U Miss richens was not the beneficiary of his estate it was to be um for his children and the trustee was going to be his sister Katie so um I'd like to go back to um than is 70 should be the Helo loan balance for Willow is that right yeah by August of 2020 what was the balance August of 2020 24683 931 okay um is there a significant well up until that point how was there money being paid on that debt yes it they were the interest only payments the minim minimum payments were about $900,000 something like that that were made every month did something different happen in October of 2020 yes what happened there's the really the first significant payment and it's $50,000 on um October 12th um do you know where what the source of that fund was yes Miss richens had sold the Cleveland Avenue house in Salt Lake and from that she received U net proceeds of about $63,000 there was a transfer and then this $50,000 was sourced from that okay on October 12 yes okay um bringing the the balance to approximately what 196,000 do you know whether in October uh she was in a financial position to just pay that 196,000 off she was not let's go into 2021 um I guess we've still got it the timeline up direct your attention to timeline and could you describe for the record um a summary of what purchases Etc took place in 2021 yes so she acquired a property in Heber City before before she got the proceeds from Franson lane and then after that she acquired a number of properties throughout the summer especially and then um and the year acquiring three on the same day in November and I think there may be another property um that she was working on that I don't have on here but all in all she had about 15 properties in 2021 so um did she go to the same lenders for all of these 15 properties no there is some consistency in the lenders but um she did diversify I limit okay can you tell the court um some of the lenders that uh you have found that she used so she she primarily used the Sierra West and that's pretty consistent through here and the um those investors who would have been taking second third or fourth position were pretty consistent as well those are like Cocker hands Cocker hands Ellis uh SoDo Le um there's a number of them okay um and then um she also went to a company called Iron Bridge company called Boomerang she did four projects with Boomerang I see so let's um let's take when did you first of all when did she go to Ironbridge and went to Boomerang those were in the summer of 20121 okay and um Ironbridge how would you describe what Ironbridge is or does they are a they appear to be hard money lender the the terms are somewhat more flexible than typical hard money lenders but the um interest rates um on the interest rate on that loan I believe is 13% 13% and in 2021 is that high that would be high yeah so um how does uh how did the application process go between the defendant and Ironbridge there is an an original application that is submitted it appears to be online I I don't know that for sure but it appears to be online and then there was a series of emails back and forth where um the person um analyzing the loan or underwriting the loan is asking her to submit some additional documentation okay can you uh take a look at State's exhibit 58 please 58 yes 5'8 stat exhibit 58 is that what you were talking about some email going back and forth between Iron Bridge and the defendant yes okay um is there something about a bank statement in there uh yes it asks for personal bank statements the most okay um based on your experience uh in training why would they want to know that stuff typically they'd call that proof of funds they want to you know they they need to verify in banking terms say kyc know your customer every financial institution needs to know and verify the individual and entities that they're dealing with um I'd like you to take a look at States exhibit 59 if you would what is uh States exhibit 59 this is a secured promisory note for the what I call the 299 house in Heber um with Iron Bridge I see and um uh first of all uh this is K Rich's realy purchasing this is that what it that's right and and I misspoke this is 10% I had misdated the interest rate earlier and what is the amount that they're loaning $346,500 when in um this is in July 22 20 I'm sorry July 21 sorry it's signed July 7th 2021 now um did you examine um a bank statement from Ironbridge reportedly given to them by the depend you mean from Iron Bridge meaning we it was obtained from Ironbridge so but submitted to it uh that it used to it was part of the Ironbridge loan pack loan information that we received yes okay um would you take a look at State's exhibit 11 please what is States exhibit 11 this is um America First Credit Union uh bank account statement for May 31st 2021 for K Rich's realy account number 6577 and um do you know where this was sourced from this was sourced from Iron Bridge as indicated by the number on the top okay and um how do you know it's K Rich's realy the header on the bank account statement U reports to be K's realy I see and then in the body of that statement does it um give a the amount in the bank account yes what is that um the summary of the accounts for the three accounts that are included in this bank account statement is $210,800 what is States exhibit 12 this is the America First Bank account statement for K rich and surty for that same month May of 2021 for account 6577 this is the actual statement that we received from America First Credit Union in what way is it the same and in what way is it different from the state's exhibit 11 the header um is the same but the body the transactions that are contained um are different what is the total uh balance the total balance is 15,69 all right let's take a look at States exhibit 13 what is that this is the actual bank account statement for c and e stone masonry and in 7664 this was the U document that was received directly from America First Credit Union and how do you know it's cnes um the header indicates that it's cnes and um the transactions appear to be consistent with what CN would be doing and it matches the bank account statement that Ironbridge produced but it has the different header on it so let me make sure I understand this 11 has a header from her account K Rich's realy but yet the body of CN May 31st uh bank statement that's correct I'd like you to take a look at States exhibit 60 that's 60 I believe that's a an email exchange is that right that's right uh what's the the uh subject uh quick question okay and um is the is the quick question below physically below the response is that yes okay so what is uh the quick question this is from um Mr KY I don't know how to say that from Iron Ridge emailing Miss richens asking for an explanation about her credit score the credit cards and um referencing that bank account statement okay um is is he perplexed I mean speculation suain um specifically what does he say to her he says when he first ran her credit was lower than expected there were some delinquencies on the credit cards but he can see from the bank account statement that she provided that she's got plenty of money in the bank to cover expenses what how does she respond to that do you like me to read it yes please if you just read what she says to that question um she say hi Richard hope you had a great Fourth of July weekend yes sure everything is paid off now it just probably hasn't updated I recently learned about all of this as well LOL and then my husband decided to explain to me that this was his doing a while ago we are in the process of separation for one of many reasons but this is one of them to keep it short and sweet LOL it's been crazy to say the least I look forward to working with you guys on our first and hopefully many projects okay you said um she got she obtained some loans from Boomerang four I believe you said yes okay um I'd like you to take a look at um States exhibit 14 if you would what is State's exhibit 14 this is from boomerang that it's it's and it's an America First Credit Union bank account statement for Kate rich and realy account 6577 for June of 2021 and um how do you know it's K Rich's realy is the header and what is the balance on the the the balance the ending balance is 72,8 31 okay let's take a look at States exhibit 15 then and what is that this is the actual statement that was obtained from directly from America vers Credit Union for K Rich's realy account 6577 in June of 20121 and um the header say K richens and realy and the 6577 that's right what is the ending balance ending balance is 15339 okay let's take a look at States exhibit 16 what is that this is is the actual bank account statement that was obtained directly from America First Credit Union for cndd stone masonry LLC account 7664 for June of 2021 and um it presumably says CNE and U 7664 the in the header in the header yes what's the ending balance the ending balance is $ 72,8 31 that's the same as States exhibit 14 the one that was um issued to Boomerang or submitted to Boomerang yes okay so once again cut and paste of header for K Rich's realy um and the the data the amount of money on hand from CN that's correct uh direct your attention to States exhibit 61 if you would could you describe for the record what this is yes this is from Boomerang this is a document that um came directly from Boomerang it's a kind of an internal review a summary of um a a potential long kind of a ahead of um would be prepared in the midst of uh the approval process I see and what was the property this is for the 75 East Midway house I think yes the the smaller Midway house okay and in there does it reference uh well first of all how much is the loan amount uh the loan on this is um $454,000 and um does it talk about um the defendant's uh liquidity it does on the second page and what does it say about it um let's see it says under liquidity and net worth Corey has liquidity in the amount of $722,000 she has a net worth of $2,719 th000 made up of cash ities life insurance retirement funds and real estate investment and so that that number 72,000 is that same figure uh from CNE that she's submitted in States exhibit 14 um don't remember the exact exhibit number but yes that number is drawn from that bank account statement that was actually c not cap Richard realy did you find any other instances where this similar type of um cut and paste header um with some other uh account was submitted to lenders yes how many times did you find that I found six so far including these two yes now um like you to to take a look again at U the timeline yes okay so these purchases in 2021 you've already mentioned 15 more and more um did any of them sell yes great number of them did yet okay tell us about that um well um as um like the mil Creek house for example that was acquired in the spring that's a um a home in Salt Lake County and so there was a a primary lender on that and um multiple investors to who gave K Rich's realy money for the rehab costs and then when it was sold most of those were paid from uh closing like at the title company some were not some some came out of C Rich's Real's net proceeds okay so she's turning over property isn't she gaining money by doing this yes okay what's happening to her um debt load that was increasing especially she started um in the middle of summer of 2021 she started um acquiring personal property loans that they're not secured by real property and um we're secured by Advanced you know her future receivables okay um is green grass holding one of those yes okay turn your attention um to States exhibit 20 so could you uh first of all tell us what states exhibit 20 is this is a revenue purchase agreement um dated it's in September of 2021 and uh could you explain the basic terms of this this is um an agreement um with K Rich's realy and then some other companies um pledging $887,000 of advanced receivables for $60,000 um upon um execution of the agreement and um igned by Corey and dorine Corey okay so let me make sure I understand this so she's saying I will give you 877,000 of money I haven't earned yet in the but I'll pay it to you in the future if you give me 60,000 now yeah and what what's represented here that it it's it's been earned and it's come it's going to be coming in but it's not in yet and so she's she's saying I'll pay you back $87,000 for $60,000 now I see okay and um what did it obligate her to pay um $543 every week did she pay that uh for a series of payments yes okay um how much did she pay the year work I think she paid about 20,000 I'm not exactly sure the amount on there but she she paid about 20,000 and then defaulted in December um did something happen as a result of that default yes they filed suit in New York okay the state would direct your attention to State's exhibit 21 could you describe for the record what states exhibit 21 is this is the summons and the verified complaint associated with that lawsuit and so in a lawsuit like that that there's some alleged facts yes okay so I direct your attention to page five fact number 11 yes um and what is the allegation there um that she did pay $2,752 leaving the balance of unlimited receivables of $65,625 and then there's default fees of 2500 and attorney's fees of 19574 yeah did you find any other um agreements or attempted agreements between the defendant and these type of lenders yes I found zro okay what what are they um qfs Financial is one she um entered into where she pledged $165,000 um $167,000 for rece uh of future receivables for $15,000 okay that was that was the largest one by far most of them are than 20 to $30,000 range was is blue Bridge something like that blue bridge is one Delta Bridge funding zahov uh Asset Management Crown funding there are over a couple of dozen or I'm sorry over a doz yeah about 20 or 25 you mentioned early on that she uh the defendant had an account with Navy Federal yes Navy Federal Federal do you know what kind of account she had there uh at Navy Federal she had a checking a savings and a credit line okay um during the the period of August to December of 2021 um do you have any idea well first of all what was the maximum amount for that the credit limit for that um revolving line of credit 15,000 for that period August 2021 to December 2021 do you know what her balance was relatively speaking well um it was uh almost maxed out most of the time uh during that specific review period I would say I think that's about 13,000 okay um can you take a look at States exhibit 26 please is that a multi-page document it is what are they these are the bank account statements for the account ending in 0060 starting in July of 21 ending in March of 22 and for Cory Rich the and does the statement include um the balance on revolving credit yes okay and throughout that time period I've just mentioned it's more or less maxed out yes okay like you to take a look at States exhibit 27 do you know what those are yes what are these These are checks U from the account of Cory Rich at Navy Federal and these checks were deposited into uh the account of um K richond realy I believe all of these were deposited into that account and none of them cleared okay let's um just do an exercise of one of these um let's take a look what's the check number number on the very first one of States exhibit 27 check 271 and when is that um the date on the check is 828 2021 can you find that transaction on in States exhibit 26 which U which is those uh statements for that appropriate time period yes yes it's on um the bites number ends in 99 at the top and it was returned on 831 of 21 okay so that check and how much was that check for that particular one uh $2,100 and all of the checks then in States exhibit 27 are similar in that way that's right so now we're at December of 2021 um the end of the the year there um what is her financial status at that point uh all in all with all the property she had she had Acquired and sold a number of properties she retained several as rentals she still had um loans on those properties so at that time it was about four or 4.5 million that she still owed on those well the the the trust Deeds she had paid some on them but uh there's that and then um with all of the personal property loans it's hard to tell for sure but I think somewhere around5 or $600,000 she owed um on those personal property loans as well now you mentioned that one one for example um was I think it was um green grass that that's right required her to pay 5,000 weekly 5,438 weekly yes okay were there some that were daily yes and how many payments did she have to make for the month of December for example uh she made about n 90 over 90 payments on debt you know toward the there's a difference there's the debt load and there's The Debt Service so she she owed the the amounts that I stated and The Debt Service are the payments that she paid on that debt and they're they're a little well there's over a hundred that she paid payments um so for the month of December um how much debt service is just what she paid not necessarily it could be the same as debt load but in this instance now it's different okay yeah what was the debt service for the month of December do you know um it is over $300,000 I'd like to um take a look at um this is back to State exib 69 I'm going to move on to the the next chart can you describe for the record what this next summary chart is this is the the debt that she the debt payments that she made during these months once again this is Debt Service not debt load that's right okay this is not the amount of debt she she possessed this is the the amount of payments that she made on that debt okay and for the months of uh June of 2021 through February of 20122 and I I do need to to make a note that in preparing for this hearing I've noticed that in December of 2021 I made a duplication so we need to reduce that number by about $444,000 in December okay it's it's still about 320,000 now in January and February it appears to go down is that right that's right once again look at the same information and expressed differently um you describe this for the record this is the third chart on the PowerPoint so this is drawn from that previous data and so it's just showing it in a pictoral format it seems after December it seems to be going through the floor that's right these are the payments that she made on the debt uh she did pay off one of her one of her lenders one of the personal property loans she did pay that off in in January and that was about n 19,000 um but mostly because of what had happened in November and December so many transactions had been returned and not cleared by the bank they did not some of them continued to try to draw in January and February but they were UNS successful and so those payments were not made so this doesn't depict her debt loow the amount of debt she has but rather she's just not paying that's correct at least from at least from the accounts I have at least from the accounts that I have reviewed um sometime around this time period do she take on a another project yes she did um is it different than previous projects you talking about the Legacy Way project the large house oh okay yes tell me about that she um the the first repsy um which stands for Real Estate purchase contract um uh was in December of 2021 and it's a a very large property um on Legacy way in Midway and uh that's the property that she did end up closing in March of 22 okay um so um it begins though in December and concludes um when in March um well the the settlement statement I've seen is dated March 4th some documents uh were signed March 4th some were signed on the 7th and recorded on the 8th of March how is this different from any of the other previous projects it was an unfinished house and just quite large a very very ambitious project um the purchase price I believe was 2.9 Million what was it a state of repair it it was um under construction so it didn't it didn't have much inside down to the studs exposed wiring things like that um did she ever that you're aware of give an estimate to lenders about what she anticipated those costs would be to rehabit yes what was that three it her estimate was between three and4 million to rehab that property once it was acquired and um how did she obtain this um property through hard money letters all borrowed then pardon me all borrowed yes all borrowed okay okay um I want to U talk about life insurance um have you had the opportunity to look at life insurance policies that were owned by the richens family yes um um do you know about how many there were I think there were six okay this is the fourth chart of four from State 69 PowerPoint um can you describe what that is yes these are the um life insurance policies on Eric Rich's life and I've um taken the the effective date some of them were um in 2015 17 18 and there's the one in 2022 okay and those dates those years are the DAT of purchase that's right okay um are they different uh for I guess different purposes it appears to be yes in in what place well the first one on the top is um um um mortgage insurance policy so basically um it would pay off the mor pay down the mortgage I think it's some some odd amount like 20 um 72.5% or something I see but okay um was there one for business I believe so and I am unclear as I sit here if that's that million dooll one or not so I'm sorry there is one on the business um where um Eric and his business partner if one passed away then it would benefit the other and allow the other one to buy out the business from the estate or the other okay so it doesn't go to the spouse or rather to the other business partners bus part to buy out the spouse yeah I um are you familiar with a company life insurance company called crew stage yes um is it a some sort of Business Association with PenFed yes okay um to your knowledge what is that relationship well true stage is is a an insurance company and they typically Market their product to credit union members all sorts of credit union members different credit unions do you know whether the defendant was a member of PenFed she was yes how about do you know whether um Eric richens was I know that he was not okay um direct your attention to States exhibit 62 and what is that just for the record uh these are the bank account statements for Cory richens at PenFed Credit Union the account 9118 um for the period starting in October of 2021 it's just through April of 2022 and uh States exhibit 63 what is that this is a declaration of custodian of Records no records and this is from PenFed Credit Union um stating that Eric richens did not have any accounts at their institution okay are you aware of an application from the defendant to True stage for life insurance in January of of 2022 yes all right direct your attention to States exhibit 17 what is States exhibit 17 this is the application for two stage individual term life insurance T and this is dated um the end of January January 28th or 29th of 2022 and um who's applying for what in this application this is for life insurance for Cory Darden richens and for Eric richens now is there something unusual about the information provided uh contact information for each of those two applicants yes tell us about that uh the contact information is the PO box that Miss richens used uh for her business um her email address is on there there's no email address for Mr richens and the phone number that's listed for Mr richens is not correct um how is it different do you know off the top of your head yes um the it says um 892 his number starts 792 and then ends with the 9317 that's correct okay um and and the to be clear the mailing address is is the business address for K Rich's realy for both of them yes this was this was pre-populated it appears to be prepopulated this way with Cory Darden richens and her PO Box in canas and when is it effective uh this policy was effective um February 2nd 2022 okay i' direct your attention to um States exhibit 65 now before I go there I'm sorry I skipped over something um early on we talked about uh docket 127 yes that was um if I remember correctly that was throck Morton's report that's right um and in there he has how many uh question sample three questioned samples okay so one and two are the power of attorney we've already addressed that's right so question number three is it's the signature on this life insurance policy I see and so uh is your understanding what he calls them simulated forgeries and that they're probably not Mr Rich's signatures okay okay so now now let's go to States exhibit 65 if you would what is States exhibit 65 this is a letter from True State Insurance to Eric richens at that PO Box 75 dated February 4th 2022 and what is it informing uh Eric richens up this is a welcome letter thank you for choosing true life insurance and talking about the premium the premium would be um deducted from the checking account 6577 which is the kin's realy account okay um on February 14th for $46.50 and that's an automatic withdrawal that is okay um have you examined um afcu account for K Rich's realy that's 65774 um December January February of uh December 21 January February March even of 2022 yes okay so in 6577 um is there that automatic withdrawal that you were talking about there is in February yes is there any other insurance premiums that are paid for 6577 no okay um now let's take a look at States exhibit 64 and I'll let you just take a look at what 64 is and 37 what was the second number 3737 did you describe for the record what is 64 64 is um part of December so this is an American First Credit Union bank account statement from America First Credit Union um which account Eric Rich's account U 224 so this is the joint account okay where the typical household expenses were paid and it is for December 2021 Pages um and it goes through goes through March 1st of 2022 okay so looking at those um are there any of the insurance premiums that you've mentioned before paid at of 2204 the the payments that have previously been made historically been made I should say are are paid here but not that one but not the new one just all the previous ones that's correct so um just a second have to steal my courage okay um um so we are looking at in your chart there I guess that um you find evidence of payment of those top four in your chart from the 2204 the payment of the premium yes yes but not the bottom one that's correct okay um do you know if uh the defendant made any claims on those insurance policies yes she did particularly the true stage yes she did okay um how does the claim process work how does the claim process work um a a claim is made the um insurance company would initiate a claim give it a number and then proceed to do their due diligence okay couple of things um based on your experience and training with working with insurance companies is there a convention for naming these claims yes everyone's got a little bit different process but in this in this situation there are two different claims and we can see from the the information contained in the diary that that the um insurance company kept and also the name uh you know the number of the claim we can see what day it was opened I see okay so um uh in addition is there any um are insurance policies treated differently if they're made a claim is made on them near end time to when they're opened versus if you've had a policy and T for 10 years or something yes I I worked on I don't know few dozen death investigations and what happens every insurance company will have a different policy but typically if a a life insurance policy is taken out and there's a death of the insured within a certain period of time usually it's a year or two there's a standard death investig that takes place and I've worked on many of those throughout my career okay I'd like you to take a look at what has been marked to States exhibit 18 what is States exhibit 18 this is notes for claim 2204 2800 three so this would be the claim opened on uh February or pardon me opened on April 28th probably the third one that they assigned that day or something okay and so that do you know which policy this is referring to this one is the um the larger of the two this is the $250,000 policy that uh from 2017 okay and is this what you referred to earlier as a diary yes okay um I think we have an States exhibit 67 we just uh at the beginning of the day I think offered States exhibit 67 is yes and I don't know and can you identify for the record what states exhibit 67 yes this is a similar document this is for the other claim uh number 2204 22032 so this is the claim that was opened on April 22nd 2022 and this is for so this the first one and this is for the $100,000 policy and it was opened on April 22nd of 2022 okay um let's uh look a little closer then first of all with States exhibit 18 um can you describe um what this is recording and how it works with the business um this is a chronological diary just not taking about um the date and time of a call or a um contact and just some notes so over time they can go back and refer to what happened and when I see um it's some now this is uh States exhibit 18 is referring to the 2017 policy that's right in it was made then by uh a April 28th so a week after the other one yes okay um in there does the defendant um ask some questions or I guess you the insurance company asking the defendant some questions about um the case yes uh do do they want to know about fentol yes they needed the final uh death certificate showing the cause of death and then they need to know if the fenel was prescribed and um does the defendant respond to that she does um toward the bottom she said the fenel was not prescribed so she can't give any information about it she also added that she don't have any idea how did her husband got that okay just for the record that's what it says that's not that's not my gr let's turn to States exhibit 67 now to be clear this is the first in time request yes it is and um the policy that she opened and I believe was effective you said February M yes um at some point um I think in July of 2022 um is there a conversation between the defendant and the insurance company about what's taking so long yes um this would be well there were several conversations in July um they're talking about the needing the medical records from the medical facility and then finally in August that they they say she called to know the status of the claim and then they said that they had received the medical records from the clinic okay um I wanted to all right so they finally get them when the medical records that's according to this is 81522 in the um you see the entry 822 um the bottom of page two yes um are they T are they talking about the medical records there that last it looks it looks like yes um and that they received them on what date well this is when they received receive the invoice oh it's the invoice of the payment okay all right so um do they describe um what is important to them as far as this investigation um in uh at least one of those 822 entries yes yes it looks like they received the records on 82 and 811 I don't know if that matter um okay yes they received the 36 pages of Records on 811 and then there's um substance use other than prescribed it's marijuana once or twice a year okay and no concerns about substance abuse in the household yes that's all the questions I have who doing the question with me how much time do you think you would miss 30 minutes okay for