Missing money mystery

In a whodunit of Texas-sized proportions, millions of dollars belonging to South Texas real estate investors seem to have vanished from the companies entrusted to hold real estate sales profits until they could be re-invested.

Adding to the shroud of suspicion is a cryptic recording greeting callers to any of the subsidiaries of The 1031 Tax Group.

The message tells callers a number of senior executives and other employees have left with no warning and that the reduced staff is doing its best to sort out the mess.

In all, around $20 million has gone missing from San Antonio-area investors, said attorney Marvin Pipkin, who has a client who deposited money with a company called National Exchange Services QI Ltd., the San Antonio subsidiary for The 1031 Tax Group.

Other attorneys guessed the amount missing was more like $11 million — although no one yet knows the exact figure.

"There are a number of San Antonio investors who are trying to figuring out where the money went," Pipkin said. "There's an awful lot of money that was placed (with National Exchange Services)."

And that's just San Antonio.

The 1031 Tax Group owns at least five other similar companies in different parts of the country, including Denver. All seem to be affected, and all had the same recorded message Friday.

Full Story: MySA.Com