Attention, holiday shoppers: Ill-gotten gains including a 2009 Cadillac Escalade Platinum Edition and a Chanel sapphire-and-diamond watch will hit a Raleigh auction block the week before Thanksgiving.
The federal government says the items will be sold to pay back people who invested tens of millions of dollars with former Raleigh businessman and accused Ponzi artist William Wise, who disappeared in March after federal civil charges were brought against him.
The jewelry, cars, wine, designer handbags and other luxury items once owned by Wise will bring higher prices before the holidays, says a Hillsborough auctioneer setting up the Nov. 18 sale.
"Time is of the essence," said auction company owner Leland Little, who's working for the court-appointed receiver charged with getting as much value as possible from Wise's remaining property.
In March, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission accused Wise and others of defrauding hundreds of clients through his Millennium Bank, which had offices in Raleigh, California and the island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Other items to be auctioned include an 18-carat yellow gold ring with a 3.83-carat central diamond, another 2009 Escalade and three high-end Mercedes cars. None of the cars has more than 20,000 miles on the odometer.
A federal judge in Texas cleared the way for the auction last week by agreeing to let Wise's wife, Lynn, who once had a weekly allowance of $12,000 from Wise, keep objects of "little or no value" from the million-dollar house that the couple once shared in the Olde Raleigh subdivision in West Raleigh.
The dozens of personal items exempted from the sale include a "pair of fake silver candle holders purchased in 1986 from People's Jewelers, Cornwall, Ontario, Canada." Cornwall is the town where Wise once served as a city councilman, then became a disliked figure after buying a beloved local soccer team and moving it away.
Also on the list: four snowflake champagne flutes, two used vacuums and a statue of the Disney character Goofy.
Billy Ravkind, a Dallas lawyer representing Lynn Wise, said Wednesday that the $300,000 to $400,000 that the government expects to recover -- as noted in court filings last week -- from the auctioned items won't go far toward repaying the clients of Wise's Millennium Bank.
"My understanding is that there are $70 million to $100million in outstanding claims," Ravkind said.
Through Ravkind, Lynn Wise refused requests for an interview. Court documents show that she agreed to make no further claims against the items that will be auctioned next month.
In return, Lynn Wise, the couple's son, Jason Wise, and Lynn Wise's mother, Muriel Venez, will be allowed to keep items that would likely add little to the sale's proceeds.
Raleigh entrepreneur Darleen Johns bought the Wises' former home in August for $878,000, according to Wake County tax records. The home was valued at more than $1 million in the last reappraisal, but no home listed as a nearby comparable residence has sold at that level since early 2008.
