FBI agents raid Hamburg properties

HAMBURG, N.Y. (WIVB) - They're the two most expensive homes ever sold in Erie County, and they're at the center of an FBI investigation.

The owner of the properties that agents raided Wednesday in Hamburg is just 22-years-old.

Dozens of FBI agents swarmed on the property in Hamburg early Wednesday morning.

Chris Janak lives across the street and saw it all unfold.

Janak said, "The men got out. They had camouflage on. They had battering rams and some of them had weapons."

Janak says the authorities cased the two homes at 6553 and 6523 Boston State Road.

Agents spent the entire day there, going in and taking boxes out of the homes.

Neighbors say they never really knew the owner or even saw him. He'd owned the property since the fall of last year, in what was the biggest real estate transaction in Erie County.

The homes were purchased for $6.3 million dollars by Phantom Holdings One LLC., a company owned by Michael Wilson.

Janak said, "I never met him, waved to him a couple of times."

The FBI won't say why he is being investigated, but sources tell News 4 that it has to do with money fraud.

Janak said, "With all the unmarked cars, I thought they have to be going after records. That's the first thing I thought about."

News 4 spoke with an interior decorator, who did work for Wilson, and is still owed around $96,000 dollars for work done at the two properties.

The Nest Interiors owner said, "That he's a real crook, that he's scammed a lot of people, and it's kinda like a Madoff situation but on a smaller scale."

The woman didn't want to be identified. She tells News 4 that it increasingly became difficult to track Wilson down for payment.

The Nest Interiors owner said, "You could never really talk directly to him and then it became to a point where he wouldn't talk directly to people."

The previous owner had already begun foreclosure proceedings, since Wilson missed a million dollar payment in May.