Scott Walker denied profit from shopping center sale after Coast judge finds him ‘negligent’
Scott Walker wanted 15% of the sale proceeds from an Ocean Springs shopping center his mother had a majority interest in., but he won’t see a dime of it, a Chancery Court judge has decided.
Chancery Court Judge Neil Harris made the decision in January after also learning the co-guardians appointed to oversee and manage the assets of Walker’s parents, Bill and Sharon Walker, discovered the couple owed $136,000 in back taxes.
“Due to his negligent handling of the funds of his parents for a number of years and his negligent handling of the funds regarding the commercial building, the law requires that this court deny Mr. Scott Walker’s claims for reimbursement,” Harris ruled.
Bill and Sharon Walker make an annual income of around $300,000, the judge said.
“It is a mystery to this court why anybody with that kind of income could now owe the IRS $136,000,” Harris said. “These two folks who served our state are now wards of this court, and it is this chancellor’s duty to see that they are protected ... from strangers and faithless guardians.”
Harris made the comments after rejecting another plea from Scott Walker to get a portion of the income received from the $300,000 sale of a small strip shopping center on Bienville Boulevard in Ocean Springs. He and his mother, Sharon Walker, bought the shopping center in 2017.
Sharon Walker owned 85% of the shopping center and Scott Walker had a 15% interest.
The shopping center had just been sold, Harris said.
Prior to that, Scott Walker had been collecting the commercial rents and paying the bills on the property, but the judge said his actions had been negligent when he, for example, failed to pay the taxes on the shopping center in 2019.
The shopping center sold for about $300,000, but co-conservators, Matthew Pavlov and Chancery Clerk Josh Eldridge, estimated the net profit at around $4,100 after the mortgage, taxes and other fees were paid.
Scott Walker told the judge during testimony Friday that he thought the 15% he was asking for was “was somewhat fair because I still have a lot of debt to pay,” including money he said he owed on a $20,000 loan he took out to help pay for renovations at the shopping center.
In a previous motion, Walker had argued he was entitled to a total of $95,283 in reimbursements for the shopping center, but the judge shot down that request as well. That amount included a reimbursement of $44,000 that Sharon Walker had gifted her son to make a down payment on the shopping center.
Co-conservators have been handling Bill and Sharon Walker’s assets since U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett appointed a guardian to oversee their assets in September 2020.
Starret made the appointment after finding that Scott Walker was “misspending” his parent’s money. Starrett presided over federal cases that resulted in Bill and Scott Walker’s conviction for fraud over the misuse of federal funds while Bill Walker served as executive director of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.
Walker was ordered to pay over $700,000 in restitution plus other fines and fees when he was convicted.
Walker had stopped making payments on his restitution when the federal judge appointed the guardian. Walker had only $71,000 in restitution payments over a six-year period up until then.
Since the co-conservators have take charge of the assets, Bill Walker has paid another $91,000 in restitution.
According to officials in U.S. District Court on Monday, Bill Walker still owes $352,565 in restitution.
This story was originally published January 25, 2022 at 5:50 AM.
