On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Thomas J. Nuckolls, III filed a complaint in the US District Court for the District of South Carolina against Van Winkle, Buck, Wall, Starnes and Davis, P.A., doing business as The Van Winkle Law Firm; Premier North Carolina LLC, doing business as Premier Sotheby’s International Realty; and broker Elizabeth “Liz” Asbury. The suit alleges negligence and other claims over a wire fraud that diverted $2,251,740.57 in real estate closing funds, which were then moved into cryptocurrency.
Nuckolls, a Greenville, South Carolina resident, was buying lakefront property on Lake Summit in Henderson County, North Carolina, in an all-cash deal priced at $2.3 million. The complaint says that on November 12, 2025, he wired his cash-to-close balance to what he believed was the law firm’s account at Truist Bank. The firm’s actual trust account was at First Citizens, according to the filing.
The complaint alleges that unidentified fraudsters, named as John Does 1 through 10, impersonated both Nuckolls and a Van Winkle paralegal using lookalike addresses. One was a Gmail address differing from his by one character. The other used a domain, “vwlawfirms.com,” differing from the firm’s by one letter.
According to the filing, the law firm’s file came to list the fake Gmail address as Nuckolls’s only email. The suit alleges the firm then sent the genuine settlement statement and wiring instructions to the impostor, not to Nuckolls. Less than four hours later, the complaint says, the impostor sent Nuckolls a counterfeit package with the correct closing figure and the Truist account details.
The lawsuit says the firm’s own welcome letter called for encrypted delivery of wiring instructions and a verification call from the buyer’s bank to the firm. It alleges no such call took place. The wire was released at about 5:30 p.m. on November 12, the filing states.
The complaint says that within roughly a day, the money moved from the Truist account to a Cross River Bank account tied to the Strike cryptocurrency platform and then into digital assets. It states the funds were then routed through wallets and exchanges including Kraken, Bybit, Binance and MEXC. Obiex, a Nigeria-based platform, received about $1.7 million, the complaint alleges. It says only $100,000 has been recovered, and that some funds remain traceable in identified wallets.
The suit says Premier and Asbury were on notice of similar schemes. It alleges a December 2023 incident targeted another Greenville buyer on Lake Summit, and that in September 2025 another client received an email from the same “vanwinkles.com” domain later used against Nuckolls.
Against Van Winkle, the complaint asserts professional negligence, gross negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty. Against Premier and Asbury, it asserts negligence, gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and unfair trade practices. It also asserts negligent supervision against Premier. Against the Doe defendants, it asserts claims including fraud, conversion, civil conspiracy, and a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violation. It seeks damages, treble damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and a constructive trust over the traceable funds.
The filing says the plaintiff expects to seek expedited discovery and to amend the complaint to add parties, potentially including banks, as records are obtained from Truist, Cross River Bank, Strike, First Citizens, and cryptocurrency platforms.
Please contact BlockTribune for access to a copy of this filing.
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