Federal prosecutor John MacCoon enters the courthouse Monday in Chattanooga for the first day of a fraud trial against Joshua Dobson and Paul Gott, III.A 59-year-old Methodist minister who’d never bought land in her life testified in federal court Tuesday that she was left holding $600,000 in mortgages and had to declare bankruptcy after Josh Dobson and Paul Gott III stopped making promised payments on three Dade County, Ga., land parcels.
Patricia Daniels said she’d signed for the parcels under a “no down payment” deal in which Dobson explained his company, Southern Group, would pay the money down and monthly payments for three years. At the end of the three-year period the company would buy back the land and pay out up to $20,000 for signees who’d vouched their good credit to get the bank loans.
Dobson and Gott face a 12-count indictment on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering in an alleged $45 million land sales development deal called The Preserve near Rising Fawn, Ga.
Prosecutors are highlighting five buyers in the trial but estimates range in the dozens of people affected by the costly land deal.
In the second day of the trial Tuesday, Jim Tobin completed testimony and Daniels took the stand for the prosecution.