High-end home builder arrested after clients take him to court

ATLANTA - A high-end home builder company CEO finds himself in court pushing back against clients who say he stole their money. And a lot of it. An Atlanta couple wanted him arrested. 

Mikel Muffley is a realtor. He owns Muffley Homes "master luxury builders." His company advertises it does it all: buys the lot, supplies the architect, facilitates the financing, and hires a contractor. High-end buyers with high-end expectations. 

"Because we had so many issues with past builders, this was to create a more transparent system," Muffley told a Fulton County judge in late November. 

But fuzzy accounting not transparency was what a client claimed at his criminal warrant hearing. They wanted Muffley arrested for theft. 

"Our account was drained and emptied by the time we terminated our contract," said former client Kasey Asarch. 

Asarch and her husband hired Mikel Muffley’s firm in 2020. 

"He sold us on his motto, build the house, sell yours, dream home, best price," she said.

She said delays set off the first alarms. Muffley’s attorney Raymond Giudice blamed the pandemic.

"There were delays," he said. "There were supply shortages."

Asarch's attorney said his client discovered some of the more than $181,000 they paid to go to vendors didn’t always go to their job. 

"The architect had not been paid in full, yet the ledgers indicated that he had," Attorney Scott Fortas said.

The Muffley Homes bookkeeper at the time, Sharon Adams, testified that she saw the same with the plumber payments. 

"The money was taken out of the Asarch job account and the money was placed in another job account," Adams said.

Muffley’s counsel pushed back with this question to his client, "Did you intentionally divert, steal, take, carry off, hide, fraudulently take from Mr. and Mrs. Asarch?"  To which he replied, "Absolutely not."

Muffley blamed his former bookkeeper who testified against him. Much Adams's fault, he said, punctuating his point with, "Two hundred percent."

The hearing included a testy back and forth between Muffley and his former client's counsel. 

"So you’re up here, you’re disclaiming any responsibility, but it’s your company correct?" Fortas asked.

"Correct," the embattled CEO answered. 

"I mean it’s Mikel Muffley, that’s your name, right? So if you’re not overseeing things, who his overseeing things?" 

"My licensed contractor and my bookkeeper," Muffley snapped back.

Neither the contractor nor Adams works any longer for the company. 

"I don’t care if you bring in a CPA or a Harvard master’s in finance, they are still going to come back and tell you we are short," Adams said defending herself. 

Then a shocking email was introduced. It appeared to be from Muffley to a former employee asking him for "fluffed up (manipulated)" financials. It went on to read, "If you have to, (sic) put in some fictitious cash levels." It goes on. "Lie on this" in order to get the Asarch loan approved. "Basically, create a false financial…"

Even before the evidence was officially entered, Muffley objected to the content. 

"This is a fabricated email. I did not write that email," he said.

He again blamed his former bookkeeper for having a hand it in, even though she didn’t even work for the company at the time. But he offered no proof. 

"I may have written some form of it, but it’s been added to," he said. 

His attorney reiterated this case belongs in civil court, not a criminal venue. 

The judge disagreed. 

Muffley was arrested for conversion of payments for real property improvements. He was released on his own recognizance. 

The Asarch’s home sits uncompleted two and a half years after signing a contract with Muffley Homes. 

Fortas believes this arrest has perked up the ears of other clients. 

"I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this."