Weddington Man Sentenced to 56 Months in Prison in Connection with Speedway Luxury Condo Project
Stevie Perkale Lee Previously Entered Guilty Plea to Securities Fraud and Tax Evasion
| U.S. Attorney’s Office February 02, 2011 |
CHARLOTTE, NC—U.S. Attorney Anne M. Tompkins of the Western District of North Carolina announced that Stevie Perkale Lee (also known as Steven P. Lee), 38, of Weddington, NC, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Charlotte today to serve 56 months in federal prison. Chief Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. also ordered that the defendant be immediately taken into custody, finding that he was both a flight risk and an economic danger to the community.
In a federal criminal bill of information filed in June 2010 the government charged that Lee, as president of VP Companies USA and Arcadian Residence & Resort, fraudulently solicited over $1.5 million from investors and buyers for a luxury condominium project, known as Arcadian Residence & Resort (Arcadian) which was to have been built in Concord, North Carolina, next to the Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Lee was also charged with failing to file tax returns for the years in which he collected the investor funds. On June 9, 2010, Lee entered a plea of guilty as charged. U.S. Attorney Tompkins is joined in making today’s announcement by Roxanne Vaneekhoven, Cabarrus County District Attorney, Joe Campbell, Acting Special Agent in Charge of FBI’s Charlotte Division, and Jeannine Hammett, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation Division.
According to official court documents, Lee marketed Arcadian as a luxury condominium project in Concord, NC to be built next to the Lowe’s Motor Speedway. From about June 2007 through about January 2009, from his principal offices of VP Companies USA and Arcadian, located in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte, Lee fraudulently solicited over $1.5 million from investors and buyers for the project. Court documents state that Lee used investors’ money to fund his own lavish lifestyle never developing Arcadian, while his investors lost their money.
The case was handled for the government by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt W. Meyers of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.