Infamous Billings mansion, built with stolen money, sold

BILLINGS (AP) — A 26,000-square-foot (2,415-square-meter) mansion built with stolen money on the west side of Billings has been sold for $7.5 million to the former owners of a mobile home park, a real estate company said.

The sale of the 10-bedroom, 19-bathroom residence to Jock and Cathy Clause closed last week, according to Engel & Voelkers Western Frontier, the real estate agency managing the sale.

The mansion was built six years ago by Larry Price Jr., a former Signal Peak mine executive who is serving five years in prison after admitting to stealing $40 million through various schemes, including $20 million from the mine.

After closing costs, sale proceeds will be used to resolve a federal tax lien, $1.7 million in fraudulent funds traced to the mansion could be forfeited to the government and at least $1.1 million is owed to builders and material companies, The Billings Gazette reports.

Whatever's left will be split between Three Blind Mice and Ninety M, private investment groups who loaned Price a total of $17.8 million. Three Blind Mice is a limited liability company made up of Steven Casher of Billings and Wyoming doctors Robert Schlidt and Raoul Joubran. Ninety M includes the Three Blind Mice investors and others.

Casher, a former marketing president at a Billings bank, was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud and money laundering for not telling the bank about millions of dollars in private dealings he had with Price while also approving bank loans to Price.