USA v. Devin Ward Elder

The Leeds Building (345 W. Commerce Street, downtown San Antonio) was sold by federal receiver Dan Kubinski (Crowned Eagle Realty LLC) to GXM Investments LLC for $1.4 million on March 9, 2026 (Special Warranty Deed, Doc# 20260042778, Bexar County Clerk). Between August 30 and September 7, 2023, Elder raised $1.2 million from 16 investors. Per the plea agreement (¶¶26–29, pp. 11–12), Elder falsely told victim-investors that DJE would co-invest $1,640,000 — bringing total capitalization to $2,840,000 — to purchase the building and make capital improvements.DJE never invested $1,640,000. Elder also falsely promised investors a“first-lien position,” 10% annualized interest paid monthly, an extra 2% at exit, and a 24-month maximum lock-up period. On March 20, 2024, Elder secretly took a $1,828,313 loan from First Citizens Bank using Real Property 13 as collateral — giving First Citizens Bank the first-lien position, not the investors (Doc# 20240052398, Bexar County). Elder withdrew $990,000 of the loan proceeds into the DJE Equity bank account and used those funds to pay expenses for three other unrelated projects. No improvements were ever made to the property. The Leeds Building remained an abandoned structure with plywood covering all the windows. After paying the First Citizens Bank lien, taxes, and receiver fees, no restitution has been returned to investors.

All eight industrial flex offerings were marketed with identical terms:10% annual interest paid monthly plus a 1.5% interest payment at exit, an 18-month maximum hold period, a debt-free investment until bank takeout, and Elder's personal investment of $23.6 million of his own money across the eight projects. According to the plea agreement: "Elder did not have the money to invest in these projects as he represented. In fact, Elder did not contribute any of his own money into any of the projects, other than $300.00 in Real Property 1."

Brooks Business Park Venture LLC (Real Property 1) was the only industrial flex space project where any construction was performed. Elder raised capital with a promise to build industrial flex units on a 5.048-acre tract at 9342 Southeast Loop 410, San Antonio, and to repay investors by September 2024 after obtaining bank financing.

On June 7, 2024, Elder obtained a $4,945,394 loan from Security State Bank (Deed of Trust, Doc# 20240103528, Bexar County Clerk) — nearly equal to the total investor contribution. Rather than repaying investors with the loan proceeds as promised, Elder kept the money. On May 5, 2026, Security State Bank foreclosed on the property via substitute trustee sale (Bexar County Doc# 20260084750, Substitute Trustee Guillermo S. Dekat). The bank purchased the property at auction for $5,157,000. Result: zero return of investor capital.

Real Properties 2–8 remain vacant, unimproved land. Despite raising millions of dollars in investor capital, Elder never built a single industrial flex complex across any of these offerings. When the government sells these properties, investors may recover only a small fraction of their initial investment.

Four Texas ranch land investment projects collectively raised approximately $11 million from 143 victim-investors. Per the plea agreement (¶¶17–23, pp. 8–10), each project involved the purchase of between 11 and 500 acres of land near major Texas cities. Each offering was advertised with a “12 or 18-month max hold period” and 10% annual interest paid monthly. Elder falsely represented these were “cash deals” with “no lenders” involved. Elder also falsely promised to personally invest between $250,000 and $350,000 of his own money into each project — a total false co-investment promise of $1.2 million across all four projects. He never invested any of it.

Investors were directed to wire funds to Eventide Land Holdings (ELH) bank accounts. Elder immediately transferred those funds to the DJE Equity bank account, then used comingled funds to acquire the properties and support other unrelated projects.

Real Property 9 — 11 Kendall Venture: 34 investors wired $2.74 million to the Eventide Land Holdings (ELH) account at Jefferson Bank. Elder transferred $2.63 million to DJE Equity. On September 1, 2023, Elder wired $2,626,448.35 to Kendall County Abstract Company to purchase the property. On February 27, 2024, Elder took out a $1,855,000 loan from Jefferson Bank using Real Property 9 as collateral — directly contrary to his “no lenders” promise — and transferred the loan proceeds to DJE Equity.

Real Properties 10–12: Elder engaged in the same or similar series of transactions. Elder obtained loans using Real Property 11 (500 Atascosa Venture) and Real Property 12 (453 Bee Venture) as collateral and used the proceeds to support other unrelated projects. For Real Property 10 (160 Atascosa Venture), Elder did not invest $250,000 of his own money as he had promised.

214 Gonzales Venture involved the purchase of 214 acres of ranch land near a major Texas city. Per the plea agreement (¶31, p. 12), Elder raised $1.75 million from 14 victim-investors. The investment was advertised with a “12 month max hold period” and 10% annual interest paid monthly. Elder falsely represented that he would invest $200,000 of his own money in the project.

Investors were directed to wire funds to an Eventide Land Holdings (ELH) bank account. Elder transferred those funds to the DJE Equity bank account, then on April 16, 2024, wired $1,696,835.03 of comingled funds from DJE Equity to Capital Title of Texas to purchase the 214 acres.

Elder subsequently sold the 214 acres in smaller tracts but did not repay the victim-investors as promised. Elder never invested any of his own money in the project as he had represented.