http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080825/SPORTS03/80825079/1051/...

The FBI is investigating whether Pistons' guard Lindsay Hunter and business
associates tricked a local boiler operator into buying a $1.25-million house
that he couldn't afford, according to Detroit Free Press.

Attorney Michael J. Smith said that his client Bruce McClellan of Waterford
Township recently told the FBI that Hunter and Iron Johnson, Hunter's
business partner, promised to pay him $300,000 last year to buy the
million-dollar house.

The deal called for McClellan to hold the house for one or two months until
it could be purchased by someone else.

Hunter could not be reached for comment, but his lawyer said, "Lindsey
Hunter hasn't done anything wrong. He was misled by other people who were
conducting transactions in the corporation. ... We're still trying to figure
out who did what."

McClellan told the FBI that he bought a car from Johnson, who discovered
that McClellan had excellent credit and introduced him to Hunter.

McClellan said Johnson and Hunter then proposed the real estate deal.
Although he told them he couldn't afford such an expensive house, McClellan
told the FBI they told him not to worry.

Hunter then added McClellan's name to his checking account, making it appear
to potential lenders that McClellan had a substantial income to go with his
excellent credit score, a source familiar with the investigation told the
Free Press.

McClellan said he closed on the house in April 2007, but never lived in it
and no buyer ever materialized. He told the FBI that he saw Hunter's
vehicles sitting in the driveway on multiple occasions.

McClellan told the FBI he was unable to make the $11,500 monthly payments on
the house, ownership of which is reverting back to the mortgage company,
Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. Smith said McClellan would be responsible for
any difference between what is owed on the mortgage and its eventual sales
price.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said the agency doesn't comment on pending
investigations. But a source familiar with the probe confirmed that Hunter
is being investigated.

Detroit attorney Steven Fishman, whom Johnson contacted for legal
representation, said it's premature to comment on the case.

Meanwhile, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office confirmed Monday that a deputy
assigned to the Wayne County mortgage fraud task force is investigating a
separate real estate transaction in which Hunter appears to be the victim.
But sheriff's spokesman John Roach wouldn't discuss the specifics of the
investigation.