A US fraud investigator on Friday detailed his investigation into real estate projects at the heart of a Bermuda guidance counsellor’s dishonesty trail.Cedric Oates, 41, has denied allegations that he used false or misleading statements to induce Dianne Laird to invest her money.The Crown has alleged that Mr Oates convinced Ms Laird to invest $345,000 into a scheme to buy, repair and resell foreclosed homes in Tacoma, Washington, with his friend Michael Hopkins.Ms Laird told the court that Mr Oates claimed her money was going toward the purchase of two unfinished town houses, referred to as the “48th Street Project”.The physical education teacher told the court she was promised that her entire initial investment would be returned in a matter of months not a single penny has been returned more than two years later.Ted Bader, a senior fraud investigator with the enforcement unit of the Nevada Division of Insurance told Supreme Court that he was working as a fraud investigator in Washington in May 2010.He was contacted by the Bermuda Police Service on May 26 of that year, and asked to look into a “48th Street Project” in Tacoma and any connection it might have to Mr Oates, Mr Hopkins and the company Tac48LLC.After making inquiries, he said the only project he could find under the “48th Street Project” moniker was a freeway expansion.Mr Bader said the project was publicly funded, and Mr Oates, Mr Hopkins and Tac48LLC did not appear to be involved at all.He’d earlier told the court that after the trial had already begun, he was presented with a residential real estate purchase and sale agreement concerning a property at 226 East 48th Street in Tacoma, Washington, which appeared to list Mr Hopkins as a buyer.Such a document, he said, usually indicated an offer, but did not mean that the property was actually sold.“It’s not really a legally binding document unless the sale is accepted,” he explained.He told the court that the document was difficult to read and that it had a few unusual elements, such as the seller being listed as “the owner of record”.In his experience, he said that could mean the proposal was made quickly, with the realtor not having time to check with the listing realtor as to who the owner was.Mr Bader said he looked online at the sales records for the property mentioned in the document and found that it was never sold to Mr Hopkins, Mr Oates or Tac48LLC.Under cross-examination by Mr Oates’ lawyer Charles Richardson, Mr Bader said the online records only indicated taxable transactions, and would not identify offers that did not go through.Mr Richardson showed Mr Bader the results of a search of the sales records under the name of Tac48LLC, which garnered multiple responses. Mr Bader agreed that the results suggested that the company was involved in multiple real estate transactions.Mr Richardson also put before Mr Bader a copy of a document purportedly showing an arrangement to get an extension for the purchase of the 48th Street property.Mr Bader described the document as “very unusual”.Asked by prosecutor Nicole Smith what that meant, Mr Bader said the names of both the buyer and seller were different than those in the original sale agreement.The sale agreement listed Mr Hopkins as the buyer; a person named “Brenda” signed the document as the seller. The extension listed Tac48LLC as the buyer and Mount Rainier National Bank as the seller.“This Brenda might very well represent Mount Rainier Bank, but it should say so on the form,” Mr Bader said.Mr Bader also noticed that while the sale agreement was nearly unreadable, the extension request was significantly clearer.“It’s so clear in comparison that it makes me question the source of it,” he said.