ROCKPORT, Maine — The town has placed a tax lien on the home of the former head of a Camden-area charity who has admitted to stealing more than $4.8 million from the organization.
Rockport filed a lien Aug. 7 totaling $10,396 for unpaid property taxes on the Spruce Street home of Russell “Rusty” Brace. The taxes were billed in September 2014.
If the taxes, interest and lien fees are not paid off by Feb. 17, 2017, the property will become town owned.
Brace, 81, faces up to 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty May 29 to one count of mail fraud affecting a financial institution and two counts of tax fraud and making false statements. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 9 in U.S. District Court in Portland.
Brace and his wife, Rebecca Brace, purchased the 3,656-square-foot home on 1 acre near Rockport Harbor in June 1995. The property is assessed by the town for $774,800. The sale price on the property has been dropped from $895,000 originally to $795,000 as of last week.
Brace also owns a four-story, 17,303-square-foot commercial building at 21 Elm St. in Camden that is assessed by the town at nearly $1.7 million. The circa 1830 building is up for sale for $2.3 million.
The property taxes on the Camden property also have not been paid. If the taxes are not paid by Aug. 27, a lien will be placed on it, according to the Camden town office.
Brace’s properties have liens on them as well from United Mid-Coast Charities in an effort to recoup some of the money embezzled by the charity’s longtime president.
The charity and Brace reached an agreement earlier this year in which Brace agreed to repay the organization. Attorney Jay McCloskey said Friday he expects the properties will be sold and that the liens will be paid off when that happens.
“They are good properties. They will sell,” McCloskey said.
He said he believes the original sale prices were too high but it is not unusual for prices to be lowered to attract buyers. He said he knows rents are being collected at Brace’s commercial property in Camden and he expects the taxes to be paid on that property.
McCloskey said if a property does not sell before a lien expires and foreclosure looms, that would become a concern, but he pointed out that would be 18 months from now.
The embezzlement was detected in September 2014, a few weeks after Brace stepped down as president of United Mid-Coast Charities. The new president of the charity discovered the theft when he found out that $75,000 donated by a foundation had not been deposited into the charity’s bank account.
Brace began serving as president in 1997, and in 1999, he opened a bank account at The First, N.A. branch in Camden under the name of Brace Management doing business as UCRC Charitable Fund. He then deposited checks totaling more than $4.6 million that had been intended for the charity into his account through 2014, when he stepped down as president. The organization distributes donated funds to local nonprofit organizations in Knox and Waldo counties.
The charity did not have an account at The First and since has settled its claims against the bank. Details of that settlement are not being released by either side.
Brace was the landlord of the bank, which has an office in his Main Street commercial building.