What Kouri Richins’ Best Friend Never Saw Coming

She gave Kouri Richins forty-five thousand dollars. It was supposed to be a down payment on a home. A rent-to-own deal through Kouri’s real estate company. She moved her family in and started paying rent, believing she was building toward ownership. According to prosecutors, not a dollar of that money went where it was supposed to go. Kouri allegedly used it to cover her company’s debts. The lender foreclosed. The friend’s family lost the house.

That friend isn’t the only person prosecutors say Kouri Richins used and discarded on her way to the murder of her husband Eric. There are twenty-six felony fraud charges pending against her in a separate Summit County case — mortgage fraud, money laundering, forgery, bad checks, communications fraud, and a charge alleging an ongoing criminal pattern. The murder conviction already put her away for life. These charges are about documenting exactly who she was to every person who crossed her path.

Prosecutors allege she stole a quarter million from Eric’s home without his knowledge, forged his documents for loans, and ran a real estate operation that was millions in debt with no way out. They allege the prenuptial agreement contained a single clause that made Eric’s death the only scenario where she could access his business. And they allege Eric secretly created a trust to block her — a move she didn’t discover until it was too late.

This episode traces the fraud from the first stolen dollar to the twenty-six charges and the restitution fight still ahead.

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Disclaimer:

This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

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