Scott Walker is flipping Ocean Springs homes but defaulted on debt to taxpayers
Ocean Springs businessman and convicted felon Scott Walker has defaulted on restitution payments for defrauding the government even though he has been buying and selling real estate since his release from prison in early 2016, county property and tax records show.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office wants to examine Scott Walker’s financial records, along with those of his father, Bill Walker, former executive director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. The father and son pleaded guilty in 2014 to conspiring to defraud the government while Bill Walker headed DMR.
Bill Walker is in trouble over failing to pay court-ordered restitution of $5,000 a month, while Scott Walker is no longer under the court’s supervision. But Scott Walker still has an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to pay restitution for his crimes.
U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett already sent Bill Walker back to jail once, in the fall of 2018, for failing to pay restitution. Starrett agreed to release Walker about two weeks later when Walker promised to make his monthly restitution payments.
Now, Bill Walker is behind again. He hasn’t paid restitution since February, court records show.
What Bill, Scott Walker owe taxpayers
Bill Walker’s total restitution to two federal agencies and the state auditor’s office is $572,689.14. In early August, he still owed $373,248.06, plus a $125,000 fine to be paid after restitution is complete, court records show.
Bill Walker is scheduled Sept. 15 for a second hearing on whether his bond should be revoked for failing to make the payments. Starrett could send Walker back to prison for about a year, the time remaining on his sentence.
The hearing before Starrett was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Mississippi’s Southern District asked for a delay.
“On information and belief, the failure to pay is intertwined with co-defendant Scott Walker’s default of his financial agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Meynardie wrote in a motion requesting the delay. “Scott Walker has failed to pay his remaining restitution since January 2020.
“The government seeks this continuance in order to obtain current financial statements from both the defendant and Scott Walker, so that the Court can adequately address the failure of the defendant to pay his restitution obligation.”
Scott Walker is jointly responsible for $210,000 restitution in the case with his father, plus an additional $180,000 jointly owed with his co-defendant in a separate fraud case. Scott Walker’s outstanding restitution for both cases totals $131,153.15.
Starrett ordered him to pay $750 a month in each case.
Scott Walker buying, selling Ocean Springs properties
While his father and mother live on a comfortable retirement income, Scott Walker has formed two real estate management companies.
He and his wife, Trinity Walker, formed Walker and Walker Management Group LLC three days after he was released from home confinement in early 2016, state records show. Less than a year later, the records show, he and his mother, Sharon Walker, formed SW Management Group LLC.
In early 2017, SW Management bought a small strip shopping center with five storefronts on Bienville Boulevard in Ocean Springs, securing a $264,468 line of credit with the purchase.
Scott and Trinity Walker sold their beachfront Ocean Springs home in late 2017, moving to upscale Maurepas Landing off Bienville Boulevard. They sold the first home they bought there, then moved their family into another two-story home in the same subdivision.
Meanwhile, their real estate company has since June 2017 bought five fixer-uppers and resold for of them, county property records show. They started off with two modest homes on small lots, but their third purchase was a larger house and their fourth a bungalow in a prized neighborhood near the harbor.
The company currently owns a piece of property two blocks off front beach at the corner of Cleveland and Porter avenues, where the house is undergoing extensive renovations and is on the market.
When Bill Walker was in trouble two years ago, he told Starrett that he would see his Ocean Springs home on 2.5 acres if needed so that he could pay his restitution. But Walker and his wife still own the property, according to county tax records.
