St. Helena woman charged with financial identity fraud and forgery totaling $312,000
Police arrested 34-year-old Samantha Nottingham Thursday, charging her with three counts of financial identity fraud and three counts of forgery, accusing her of fraudulently purchasing three vehicles worth $312,000.
According to a news release from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, the department has been investigating Nottingham and her financial dealings under the business name “The Eastern Westerner, LLC” for several months.
“After interviewing numerous witnesses and reviewing financial documents, investigators learned that between December 2020 and January 2021 Nottingham fraudulently purchased three pickup trucks at Vaden of Beaufort,” the release read. “Vaden estimated the total value of the trucks at approximately $312,000.”
As of Friday night, Nottingham was being held at Beaufort County Detention Center under a $100,000 bond.
The St. Helena Island resident has been named in several lawsuits as a defendant in the past three years, according to the Beaufort County court documents.
In May, she and The Eastern Westerner LLC were sued by John Binder, who alleged that he loaned Nottingham $200,000 in November and did not receive any repayment by the loan’s maturity date.
The suit also alleged that John McKenzie, Walter Gay, Greg Godfrey and Jonathan Swidrak were added as “managing members of Eastern Westerner” after the loan was made but prior to the maturity date, and that the company is a “shell entity” and an “alter ego” of all the defendants. McKenzie has since been dismissed from the suit.
According to the lawsuit, Nottingham also showed Binder W-2 forms and a bank statement that showed she had over $75 million in combined assets, which Binder alleges were “falsified, and do not accurately reflect Defendant Nottingham’s tax returns or account balances, for the purpose of inducing (Binder) to make the loan.”
Binder is asking for $260,173.15, which represents the amount of the loan and its interest, along with any further interest accumulated since the lawsuit, damages and his attorney fees.
This story was originally published July 17, 2021 at 12:33 PM.