A burning home is a sad sight, made all the more devastatingwhen a piece of history is swept away with it. From the ashes of aonce regal country estate in Pennsylvania comes a lawsuit alleginginsurance fraud, wire fraud, arson, and a staged theft.

The 53-page court document related to a home fire outside ofPhilly reads more like a screenplay than a lawsuit, complete withan interesting cast of characters: a mysterious so-called socialitefrom Montreal and her interior designer/business mogulboyfriend.

A Fairytale Ends
On April 4, 2012, 100firefighters responded to a blaze at “Bloomfield,” Jerald Batoff's24,000-square-foot property situated on seven acres. Located a meremile from Villanova University, the 19-bedroom, 15-bath throwbackto the Gilded Age epitomizes French Chateau style and is known forits Horace Trumbauer redesign and formal gardens, which weredesigned by the Olmstead Brothers. 

Over the years, various stakeholders painstakingly restored themansion to its original beauty while outfitting the property withall the conveniences of modern life. 

Given all the care bestowed on Bloomfield, why would anyone wantto tarnish its legacy ? The simple answer is greed, at least byBatoff's estimation.

On Nov. 29, more than seven months after the fire, Batoff fileda complaint alleging the Canadian couple Dean Topolinski and JulieCharbonneau, who had been occupying the property, hatched a plot tocollect millions in insurance money.

The charges contained in the court document are elaborate. Init, the heartbroken homeowner condemns the duo who supposedly dupedhim, asserting they only pretended to want to buy the estate listedfor $5.2 million. Batoff says Topolinski and Charbonneau insteadstrung him along with a $260,000 down payment, monthly leasechecks, and other cash siphoned from a company on the verge ofcollapse. 

After numerous setbacks with a previously agreed uponsettlement, the couple requested a long-term lease with an “intentto buy,” Batoff says. 

He goes on to accuse the former tenants of engaging in a“pattern of racketeering activity” dating back to over a yearbefore the fire. Other allegations include wire fraud, insurancefraud, and a fake break-in at Topolinski's company, DGI Services,to collect insurance money. (The lawsuit asserts the break-inoccurred on Nov. 13, a day before a scheduled leasesigning.) 

When the lease was signed, it ostensibly gave the tenants apurported insurable interest under the option topurchase. 

The story, which is still unfolding, only gets more bizarre fromthere, including charges the couple dismissed groundskeepers anddisabled the home's security system before the fire to “cover itstracks.” 

The fire marshal ruled the cause “undetermined,” and in May2012, the renters filed an insurance claim and received $1.25million in an advance payoff. The case took another turn in lateOctober, as U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. issued atemporary restraining order freezing insurance proceeds Batoff hadcollected for the fire. While nothing is as it seems in this shadyscenario, the adage “buyer beware” could apply to the seller.