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A judge decided that Serena and Venus Williams' decaying childhood home, which has been in the family for 27 years, will be sold at auction next month.
The sisters' stepmother, Lakeisha Juanita Williams, is accused of forging the signature of her ex-husband, Richard Williams, on the mortgage papers for his four-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. This led to the ruling.
The Sun was the first to report that Lakeisha, who is 43 years younger than Richard and is now 37, borrowed $250,000 from a "hard lender" named David Simon. She then spent the money on a failed truck business.
Simon has spent the last five years trying to get back his money, which is now worth about $584,000 with interest and is owed by Lakeisha and Richard, whose health is getting worse.
The house, which is now in foreclosure and will be sold at auction with a starting bid of $1.42 million, has already been repossessed. Simon is expected to get the biggest chunk of the money.
It is the same house where Richard taught his kids how to play tennis so they could go to the Rick Macci Tennis Academy. There are two tennis courts with it.
Even though Lakeisha tried to stop the auction by filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy twice, it was thrown out because she couldn't keep up with the payments that would have saved the house.
Simon told the court that she spent all her money on "fast food and frivolous things" and never paid a dime of what she owed.
A tax lien from 2014 on the house shows that Richard, who was 80 at the time, did not pay almost $9,000 in property taxes.
The "Notice of Sale" says that it "will sell to the highest and best bidder for cash."
Simon said that the house couldn't be insured because it was in bad shape.
In the court filing, Simon says, "Debtor is not doing enough to protect Secured Creditor's collateral, which is the House." "The House isn't covered by insurance, the roof is leaking, and the collateral is in danger of being lost completely."
Property records show that Richard, who is now 80, bought the house in 1995 for $355,000.
The waterfront home was built in 1981 on more than 10 acres of land.
In the meantime, Richard's divorce case papers included testimony from his doctor saying that his health was in bad shape and that his son in Atlanta was taking care of him.
The Post has asked Serena and Venus's representatives for their thoughts.
