NEWS
The Patriot Ledger
Success Real Estate abruptly shuttered its doors in December 2024. Its owner, Stephen Webster, has since been sued by 20 people, mostly friends and former real estate agents working under the Success banner.
Webster recently spoke to The Patriot Ledger by phone from Florida about his legal, financial and health troubles. He said on April 26 he is trying to reestablish himself in business in Florida in order "to make things right."
Plaintiffs seek to recover more than $1 million in commissions, proceeds from closed real estate transactions and personal loans, court documents show.
Seven lawsuits have been brought against Webster in three different courts. Webster hasn't answered the complaints, nor has he even retained an attorney to represent him. As a result, default judgements have been recorded against him in six of the seven cases, meaning a judge has ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
In three cases, judges have assessed damages totaling more than $792,000. If and when the plaintiffs will recover the money remains uncertain. Webster says he has no money left. Banks have foreclosed on two commercial properties he owned in Marshfield and Braintree.
They two properties sold at auction for about $2 million combined. Bob Ahearn, a lawyer representing 16 plaintiffs suing Webster, told The Patriot Ledger that people are lining up with claims on that money.
"I don't know if there's going to be any money there at the end of the day," Ahearn said.
'I'm lucky today that I'm alive.' Webster speaks on failure of Success, legal troubles and his health
Speaking by phone from Florida, Webster told The Patriot Ledger that he is trying to set up a business there in order pay the money back.
"I have every intention of paying people back," Webster said. "Most of these people are my friends and clients. I'm working hard down here in Florida to establish myself, and establish a new way of making money. It isn't going to happen instantaneously."
Asked what type of business he has in Florida, Webster said he hadn't "gotten that far yet" because the foreclosures and lawsuits have occupied his time.
"All these people spending money on lawyers – in my opinion it's throwing good money after bad," he said. "I understand why they're suing me, but there's no pot of gold here. They're wasting their own money and distracting me from doing what will be necessary to pay people back."
Questioned about the whereabouts of money that plaintiffs says disappeared from escrow accounts under his control, Webster said nothing "nefarious" happened.
"There is an explanation, but I can't get into that with you because, like I said, my goal is to pay people back," he said. "If I say something to you that gets me in deeper trouble, then my ability to pay people back is going to be diminished.
"If I'm charged (criminally), then this will all come out," he continued. "I will tell everybody exactly what happened. That's pretty much all I can say."
Webster says he has not led an extravagant lifestyle
Webster vehemently denied claims by plaintiffs' lawyers that an extravagant lifestyle contributed to his firm's downfall.
"There have been so many rumors," Webster said. "They're just preposterous."
Two of the civil complaints cite as extravagances luxury automobiles, a boat, Jet Skis, frequent travel between Boston and Florida, stays at the Encore Casino in Everett and a $10,500 per month apartment in Deerfield Beach, Florida.
"I'm not saying they're all not factual, but I don't have an extravagant lifestyle at all," Webster said, adding that he no longer lives in Deerfield Beach, but in a small apartment in Boca Raton, Florida.
Success real estate owner says the pandemic is really at fault for the downfall of his business
Webster instead blames the failure of Success on adverse economic conditions stemming from the pandemic.
"When COVID hit, our income dropped in half," he said. "This came down to business slowing down, no inventory, incomes being cut in half year after year. It just caught up with me. Then I couldn't sell the buildings, and it all blew up."
Webster said his business failings have wiped out his savings and led to serious health problems.
"This was company was my child," he said. "It was going to be my retirement. Now, I have nothing. The pressure was so high that I had a major stroke in November. It was just more pressure than any person could sustain. I'm luck today that I'm alive."
Webster's ex-wife seeking to secure money owed her as part of 2014 divorce settlement
One person with significant claims on what remains of Webster's assets is his ex-wife, Johnna Webster.
The couple were divorced in 2014. As part of the settlement, she receives monthly support checks and has joint possession of their former marital home on Prince Rogers Way in Marshfield, where she still lives, according to an affidavit she filed with the Plymouth Probate and Family court.
In the affidavit, Johnna Webster said that, based on her life expectancy, she is owed more than $3 million in future support payments. The court granted her $500,000 attachments on the Prince Rogers Way home and each of the two commercial properties.
An attachment is a court order seizing a defendant's property in anticipation of a ruling in favor of the plaintiff claiming to be owed money.
Attorney for plaintiffs provides update on cases against Webster
One of Ahearn's 16 clients, former Success agent Kristen Dailey, says Webster owes her almost $153,000 mostly in commission checks that either bounced or Webster never sent her.
After the default judgment, a Plymouth Superior Court judge tripled that amount as punitive damages, ordering Webster to pay Dailey a total of $458,344 plus another $10,500 in attorney's fees.
Ahearn said that under Massachusetts law, damages can be tripled when a defendant is found to have willfully and knowingly engaged in deceptive business practices.
In another case, Ahearn represents 14 former Success agents who claim to have lost $337,556 in commissions and loans to Webster. Ahearn said he'll seek triple damages in that case as well at a hearing scheduled for June 3 in Brockton.
$320,000 from client's sale of Quincy home disappeared, plaintiffs claim
In one of the seven cases against Webster, Joseph Devlin, owner of a Quincy home on Rock Island Road, said that in the course of selling the property for $1.6 million, the buyer, Mark Waldron, deposited $320,000 into an escrow account after completing a purchase-and-sale agreement.
Devlin's complaint, filed in Plymouth Superior Court in January, says the money "is unaccounted for and upon information and belief Webster has taken, embezzled and/or otherwise absconded with the total deposit that was to be held in escrow."
After Webster failed to answer the complaint, a judge decided in Devlin's favor, ordering Webster to pay $256,000 plus interest.
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Reach Peter Blandino at [email protected].