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The Warren County prosecutor's and the Ohio attorney general's offices are investigating claims by a woman who says a lawyer duped her into buying houses worth almost $5 million that she has never lived in and cannot afford.

Authorities are reviewing Francisca Webster's purchase of two houses built for Homearama shows in the Long Cove subdivision in Deerfield Twp. and another in the River's Bend subdivision in South Lebanon.

Webster, a Cincinnati resident, is suing lawyer Eric Duke in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court because he misled her about the house purchases, her attorney Ron Parry said.

"When she took her tax papers to Duke in 2006, she told him she had gotten some bad news, that her job was going to be phased out," Parry said. "He told her he knew of a way she could make some money, that he had a real estate hedge fund and if she would help him out, and buy some properties, that there would be some money in it for her to pay her bills.

Webster owed about $60,000. Duke told her she would own the houses for three months and he'd take the houses and debts over and all of her debts would be paid, Parry said.

Duke had lived in Maineville, but owed $16,317 in property taxes and Warren County began the legal steps that lead to a sheriff's sale of the property to collect the debt. Duke's bank paid the back taxes on Feb. 1.

Webster is still listed in county records as the owner of the three houses but earlier this month, her mortgage lender, Washington Mutual, started foreclosure proceedings on the two Long Cove homes, in the Warren County Common Pleas Court. The bank claims it is owed $3.5 million in outstanding principal balances and other fees and costs.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.

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