Jailed Asheville Airbnb business owner, bank fraudster, appeals federal property seizure

ASHEVILLE - A jailed Airbnb business owner convicted of bank fraud has said he will appeal, without a lawyer, the seizure of his properties.

Shawn Johnson, 38, is in the Transylvania County jail awaiting sentencing for bank fraud to which he pleaded guilty in 2022 and possession of a firearm by a felon in June in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina in Asheville. The combined statutory maximums for the two crimes is 40 years in prison, though Johnson is expected to face a shorter sentence.

Johnson, meanwhile, had been ordered to forfeit $2.8 million after he and co-conspirators fraudulently obtained the 16 loans from financial institutions to purchase properties that were used in his short-term rental businesses around the Asheville area. To pay that, Chief Judge Martin Reidinger in September ordered that the government may seize some of his properties, whose total value is $500,000, according to a recent filing by federal prosecutors.

Now Johnson is saying he will seek to stop the seizure, mailing a hand-written document from jail that said he would "appeal concerning the preliminary order for forfeiture of specific property."

In it he noted he will appealing "pro se," meaning he will represent himself. Attorney Thomas Amburgey who is representing Johnson in U.S. District Court, declined to comment Oct. 6.

Johnson had been free on bond until it was found he violated release conditions, including trying to pay for the services of a high-end sex worker with an expensive handbag that he later tried to get refunded by telling his bank it had been bought by someone else who stole his credit card information. In another violation, Johnson was found to have bought and sold property.

Some of those sales might have involved Johnson trying to keep properties from being taken by the government, the judge said in his Sept. 7 order for the seizure.

"In granting the forfeiture money judgment, the court found that a number of the defendant’s properties had 'been refinanced or subject to bankruptcy or foreclosure proceedings' rendering them 'effectively unavailable for the purpose of forfeiture," Reidinger wrote. "The evidence presented by the government in support of its present motion makes clear that these properties were rendered unavailable for forfeiture through the actions of the defendant."

Johnson created at least 17 entities to own and manipulate assets and used at least six "individual nominees" and related entities to control rental property listings, though he was truly the owner, the judge said, adding he also manipulated the bankruptcy system and interfered with the state foreclosure system to the point a state court banned him from such activity.

"Finally, the defendant has expressly attempted on multiple occasions during consensually monitored jail calls to manipulate and/or coordinate for others acting on his behalf to move assets, including assets that the defendant believed would be identified for forfeiture and including, but not limited to, fraud proceeds."

Johnson is also facing charges in Buncombe County District Court for allegedly assaulting a man with a machete and letting chickens run loose.

More than a decade before the gun and fraud guilty pleas, Johnson was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for counterfeiting. After that, he appeared to turn his life around, becoming known as a hard-working handyman and a celebrated entrepreneur, owning dozens of short-term vacation rentals.

But some doing business with him began to complain, saying he had bilked them out of money. In 2019, he had his real estate license permanently revoked after the N.C. Real Estate Commission determined he had kept money earned by Airbnb owners whose property he managed.

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Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government, and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095, or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Jailed Asheville Airbnb owner, fraudster, appeals federal seizure