Former state representative in legal hot water
As published on page one of the Sept. 28, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.
Former N.H. Rep. David A. Young's latest appearance in the news may be his most surprising -- and mysterious -- to date.
Earlier this month, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported federal officials had conducted a raid on a 5,197-square-foot, gulf-front home in Hernando Beach, Fla., belonging to the Alstead native.
That same day, on Sept. 9, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah filed paperwork with the Cheshire County Register of Deeds to place a lien on any property owned in the name of Young, Richard Brothers, or the company Paper Mill Village. Brothers is an officer of the Paper Mill Village company.
The Hernando County clerk of court in Florida received a similar request to seize 13 properties -- valued from $148,500 to $520,000 -- owned by Young's company Hernando County Holdings, and documents also showed prosecutors froze more than $15 million in 10 bank accounts held by the company, the St. Petersburg paper reported.
In a phone interview this morning from Florida, Young downplayed the report, characterizing the "raid" as more of a cordial visit by representatives of the Internal Revenue Service with questions about Hernando County Holdings.
"They asked us questions about some of the investors and they asked us about the fund flow and where some of the funds went. ... I am hopeful that when it's all said and done we'll get it all worked out," Young said.
A lien has been placed on a house that Young owns in Alstead until the matter is resolved, he said.
The $15 million "had nothing to do with us," Young said.
A representative of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah said she was unable to comment on the case involving Young and his companies, and federal law enforcement officials were similarly tight-lipped about the reported raid.
According to the Times, nearly a dozen agents wearing FBI and IRS markings were creeping toward the house from half a block away, one of them equipped with a crow bar, when Young drove up in a Humvee and went into the house with the agents.
But Young said the FBI was never involved.
The Paper Mill Village company played a role in the creation of the Paper Mill Village senior housing complex in Alstead, but is not an owner of the property, according to Keith F. Thibault of Southwestern Community Services, an agency that oversees subsidized housing units in the region.
Young served in the N.H. House from Alstead during 1985-93 and from Langdon during 1999-2000.
In the early 1990s he was involved in development work in Albania -- work that was the topic of a 1992 Boston Globe article that led Young to sue the paper and the Associated Press for defamation of character.
In 2006, Young was disbarred from practicing law in New Hampshire after the N.H. Supreme Court found he had used a client's money to pay other clients and then implied she was lying about a sexual assault claim she made against her employer, in an attempt to collect more money from her.
Young has a long record of military service and has served multiple tours in the Middle East.
tagged with: Alstead N.H., international men of mystery, IRS investigations, N.H. State House
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