Tacomans who unfairly profited from dead strangers’ estates must pay $7M
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- Judge orders two Tacoma residents and their companies to pay over $7 million.
- From 2019–2024 defendants controlled ~200 estates and sold 90 homes.
- Court mandates $4M restitution due in 30 days and $3M in penalties.
A King County judge has ordered two Tacoma residents and their companies to pay more than $7 million after finding them liable in a “probates for profit” scheme exploiting loopholes in state law to gain control of dead strangers’ estates and divert money and property away from rightful heirs.
Between 2019 and 2024, John B. Elliott, 65, Shanelle Sunde, 45, and their associates became third-party probate administrators of about 200 dead strangers’ estates, mostly in Kitsap County. They opened eight probates in Pierce County.
When a person dies with a last will and testament in place, they have typically designated someone as the executor to take care of the probate process, which is how a person’s property is redistributed after death. The executor sells property, pays creditors and distributes remaining assets to heirs.
When someone dies without a will, a court may appoint a probate administrator to do that work.
After gaining control of the estates, the defendants sold at least 90 homes collectively worth more than $28 million while collecting large commissions and fees for themselves. The Washington State Attorney General’s Office, which sued the defendants in February, said Monday that money was sometimes moved between various trust accounts to cover their tracks.
Elliott also took or sold multiple personal items from the estates, according to court records, including a Jaguar sedan, jewelry, firearms, furs and furniture. The Attorney General’s Office said rightful heirs were often unaware of the probate cases and the profits the defendants were reaping from them.
“People shouldn’t have to worry about loopholes in the law that leave them or their family members vulnerable to fraud and abuse — especially during times of grief,” Attorney General Nick Brown said in the statement. “I’m happy that the work of our office will provide some solace to families.”
The News Tribune was unable to reach Elliott or Sunde for comment. A phone number for Elliott appeared to have been disconnected. In a July court order, King County Superior Court Judge Suzanne R. Parisien wrote that a bench warrant had been issued for Elliott’s arrest in Kitsap County in December 2024 and that he remains outstanding.
The $7 million Elliott, Sunde and their companies were ordered to pay by Parisien on Oct. 3 includes more than $4 million in restitution that must be paid within 30 days. Funds will be distributed to affected estates and consumers. The defendants must also pay $3 million in penalties, attorney fees and costs to the state.
Elliott did work flipping houses before 2018, according to court records, but his real estate license was revoked that year by the Department of Licensing because he wasn’t dealing honestly in transactions. In the Attorney General’s Office’s complaint, it alleged that early on in the probate scheme, the defendants routinely tried to buy estate properties for less than market value, allowing them to flip them for profit.
As part of the scheme, they misled heirs about the value of the properties. For example, in June 2021, Elliott and another defendant purchased a house in Central Tacoma for $10 “and other valuable consideration” after befriending and assisting the estate’s heir and convincing him there was little value in the property, persuading him to sign over ownership directly to Elliott.
The four-bedroom, one bathroom house later became the headquarters of Elliott’s businesses.
The Attorney General’s Office pointed to one case in Burien where the defendants gained control of a woman’s childhood home after her younger sister died of cancer in 2016. The defendants received $110,000 through the sale of the house, according to the Attorney General’s Office, and they managed to drain more than three-quarters of the money before a judge froze the remaining assets. The living sister, Sandra Allen, will now receive the remaining $25,000.
“You think how many people they’ve done this to — it makes you mad,” Allen said in the news release. “I was so happy when I found that out, because I thought, ‘What is the average person going to do?’”
