Fraud Friday: 9 Fake Lien Waivers, Zero Work;  Muncie Contractor Indicted on $188,000 Construction Loan Draw Fraud 

July 17, 2026

Bob Coleman
Founder & Publisher

Fraud Friday: 9 Fake Lien Waivers, Zero Work;  Muncie Contractor Indicted on $188,000 Construction Loan Draw Fraud 

Today’s fraud is a small one by Fraud Friday standards. The fraud was $188,000. But it targeted the one control every construction lender relies on: the lien waiver.

Richard Turner, 38, is an Indiana general contractor operating as Turner Remodeling LLC.

In March 2024, a Muncie healthcare facility hired Turner for a leasehold improvement renovation project.

On April 5, 2024, the company signed a $785,225 construction loan agreement with a bank to fund the build-out.

The bank would release draw funds to Turner only after he supplied signed lien waivers. These are documents in which a subcontractor certifies that it performed the plumbing, concrete, or electrical work being billed. Each waiver required two signatures: Turner’s and the subcontractor’s.

Construction lenders require lien waivers because an unpaid subcontractor or supplier can file a mechanic’s lien against the property, even if the lender has already advanced the construction funds to the general contractor. That lien can cloud title, delay the sale or refinancing of the property, increase legal costs, and, in some cases, threaten the lender’s collateral position. 

A properly executed lien waiver provides evidence that the subcontractor has been paid, or has waived its right to file a lien for the work covered by the draw. For that reason, lien waivers are one of the primary controls lenders use to verify that construction proceeds are flowing to the parties who actually performed the work and to reduce the risk of undisclosed lien claims against the property.

Once the bank received the signed waivers, it released the funds to Turner and trusted that Turner would pay the subcontractors.

However, the grand jury says Turner submitted nine fraudulent lien waivers naming five subcontractors. The subcontractors never performed the work. They never signed the waivers. According to the indictment, Turner forged the signatures of companies and individuals who had never agreed to work on the project.

The paperwork moved fast, says the indictment.

On April 2, 2024, three days before the construction loan agreement was even signed, Turner submitted a draw request totaling $92,500 — a mix of legitimate subcontractor invoices and forged lien waivers for work that was never performed. The bank wired the funds to the company accounts several days later.

On September 4, 2024, Turner submitted another draw request totaling $96,400, again blending real subcontractor charges with fabricated waivers, and the bank wired the funds to his personal account.

On November 7, 2024, Turner submitted a final draw request that included one forged lien waiver for $66,000, along with legitimate charges. On November 22, the bank issued him a cashier’s check for $139,543 covering the full request.

Across the nine forged waivers submitted over eight months, the indictment says $188,000 was advanced for subcontractor work that was never performed. Turner kept that money for personal expenses, including gambling, the grand jury says.

Whether the bank conducted site inspections of the work performed is unclear. A proper site inspection most likely would have caught the fraud.

Turner faces nine counts of loan fraud and has pleaded not guilty.