Thomas Daniels was looking for a new beginning.<\/p>\n
Just on the other side of a divorce and two brain surgeries, Daniels\u2019 life in the years leading up to 2021 had been rocky. His career as a marine mechanic behind him thanks to his physical limitations, Daniels was coming to terms with a future that looked much different than he\u2019d imagined for himself.<\/p>\n
Read more Ahead of Charlotte shows, \u2018Chappelle\u2019s Show\u2019 comic weighs in on Kevin Hart roast<\/a><\/p>\n But one dream still seemed within reach.<\/p>\n \u201cOut of its materials alone, log homes have the power to create a serene oasis in an otherwise chaotic landscape,\u201d read the website of American Log Homes and Cabins, a Charlotte-area company Daniels had found online.<\/p>\n He\u2019d always wanted a log cabin.<\/p>\n American Log Homes and Cabins had been advertising discounted kits online and in newspaper ads across the country. The kits \u2014 packages of pre-cut logs that promised an affordable alternative to traditional building \u2014 had been partially paid for by customers who later abandoned them, the company claimed. That meant lucky would-be owners like Daniels could pay just the remaining balance to make the \u201cdream homes\u201d theirs.<\/p>\n After reading glowing online reviews about the Better Business Bureau-accredited company, Daniels, who had just relocated to western North Carolina from Florida, wired American Log Homes $16,500 in September 2021. He got his blueprints, and the company promised he could have the logs delivered whenever he was ready. All the company\u2019s invoices promised customers there was no deadline.<\/p>\n It\u2019d taken longer than Daniels hoped to secure land in Hayesville, and a few years passed. But any time he\u2019d checked in with Michele Wilson Szabo, the company\u2019s owner, he\u2019d been assured he just needed to give the word and his log cabin kit would be sent.<\/p>\n So Daniels called to do just that, in January 2026. He got no response. When he tried again, he reached a recording:<\/p>\n \u201cPlease note that American Log Homes and Cabins has permanently closed and is no longer operating. We are unable to accept new inquiries, projects or requests, and no refunds will be issued.\u201d<\/p>\n Daniels is one of at least 50 former customers in 22 states who say they paid for a log cabin kit and were left empty-handed by American Log Homes and Cabins. They reported paying between $14,500 and over $25,000 each \u2014 some wiring the company money within weeks of it being dissolved on January 15. Many of those customers submitted complaints to regulatory agencies, posted on social media and left reviews detailing their experiences online.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve been told they will get little, if any, of their money back.<\/p>\n The Charlotte Observer tried to reach Szabo through phone calls, text messages and a certified letter sent to her Indian Land, S.C., home. Grier, Wright, Martinez, a Charlotte law firm representing American Log Homes and Cabins, declined an interview request.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerican Log Homes and Cabins operated for 24 years without any issues,\u201d Szabo\u2019s personal attorney, Noell P. Tin, said in an email to the Observer. \u201cMichele fully intended to continue the business and believed she could do so until the very end. When she ultimately concluded that closure was the only option, she retained counsel to ensure the process was handled lawfully.\u201d<\/p>\n Szabo hasn\u2019t spoken to her former customers. Many now wonder: Were they victims of a scam? Or just the collateral damage of a post-pandemic economy that put another company out of business?<\/p>\n \u201cThis was not an accident and this was not some oopsie bad business decision, this was malicious,\u201d said White Springs, Florida, resident Karli Russell. She and her husband paid $17,500 for a log cabin kit they haven\u2019t received, she said.<\/p>\n To Daniels, why the company closed matters little.<\/p>\n \u201cThis leaves me stuck,\u201d Daniels said.<\/p>\n The claim forms started rolling into the law offices of Grier, Wright, Martinez within a month of American Log Homes and Cabins closing. Hired to handle the company\u2019s \u201cwinding down,\u201d the firm \u2013 which represents \u201cdistressed businesses\u201d \u2014 had mailed claim forms to former customers across the country, according to emails attorney Anna Gorman sent claimants. Customers who had paid for log cabin kits but hadn\u2019t received them could send in completed claim forms to the firm for potential repayment, they were told in a January 16 letter from the attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Those claims added up quickly: the law firm estimated they would receive more than $1.8 million in requests for reimbursement, Gorman told a customer in an email February 13.<\/p>\n But the company had less than $40,000 in assets to be distributed.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to relay that the entity is defunct and has very little in assets,\u201d Gorman wrote. \u201cIf we are able to make a distribution it\u2026will be pennies on the dollar.\u201d<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t make sense to Tara Swicicki. Szabo confirmed in a text that she received Swicicki\u2019s wire of more than $21,000 on Dec. 5 \u2014 just over a month before American Log Homes filed dissolution papers with the state. Swicicki, who lives on Long Island, hoped the purchase of a log home kit would be the first step toward establishing a homestead for her, her husband and their adult children in upstate New York.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a business owner, and there\u2019s no freaking way in hell that you are selling things and closing your business five weeks later \u2014 you would know something was going on,\u201c Swicicki said.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t make sense to Fort Mill, S.C., resident Colby Benfield, either. He\u2019d just made his last of two payments to Szabo totalling $16,500 on December 15, bank records show. He hoped to build a permanent home for himself, his wife and their newborn daughter, born in October.<\/p>\n Nor did it add up to Dawn and Roger Williams of Country Club, Missouri, whose $6,025 check for an upgrade to their cabin kit Szabo cashed on Dec. 23rd, 2025, records show. The couple originally paid more than $14,000.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly you knew the writing was on the wall, and you\u2019re still taking people\u2019s money, you\u2019re still offering your services, knowing damn well that you\u2019re not going to deliver, right? That is fraud,\u201d Benfield said.<\/p>\n By February \u2014 when ALH\u2019s attorney was telling claimants there was little money left in the company\u2019s coffers to repay them \u2014 many former customers had found one another online.<\/p>\n In Facebook chats and in log cabin group posts, they traded tidbits of information they\u2019d found about Szabo. They said they\u2019d all gotten different stories about how the company had come to possess so many partially paid-for kits it could sell at such a low price.<\/p>\n Some had answered classified ads from the company for estate sale log homes. One former customer said they were told a dealer building short-term rental cabins had put down nonrefundable deposits on the kits and ended up needing less than predicted. Another said Szabo told them a dealer died after purchasing cabins for a development and his widower wanted the company to sell them since American Log Homes didn\u2019t offer refunds.<\/p>\n A few customers responded to ads from third parties on Facebook, people who said they\u2019d invested in the kits only for their plans to later change.<\/p>\n Other former customers who\u2019d connected with each other online looked to Szabo\u2019s personal financial dealings for clues. She\u2019d placed her South Carolina townhome in a trust in August, public records show. Several speculated it was an attempt to hide assets in anticipation of the company\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n As they exchanged theories, suspicions mounted. The collective ire of the group spilled over. Former customers tried to reach Szabo through her personal social media accounts and filed grievances with state regulatory agencies.<\/p>\n \u201cThis company is a fraud. They scam[med] me out of $14,500 dollars on a log home kit. […] [Szabo] has done this to hundreds of people,\u201d a Stroud, Oklahoma, resident said in a Feb. 2 complaint to the North Carolina Attorney General\u2019s Consumer Protection Division.<\/p>\n So many miffed log cabin kit purchasers had started calling Szabo\u2019s recent employer, real estate company Better Homes & Gardens Paracle, that a beleaguered receptionist at one point threatened Benfield \u2014the Fort Mill man who wanted to build a home for his wife and baby \u2014 with legal action for harassment, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI said, \u2018Well, how about I just harass you guys a little bit more, because $16,500 is a lot of damn money, especially to a new dad building a house,\u2019\u201d Benfield said.<\/p>\n Szabo got her real estate license in March 2024. She worked at Waxhaw-based Farms & Estates Realty that year before joining Better Homes & Garden\u2019s Paracle, according to the company\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n Szabo is no longer with the real estate company, a representative confirmed by telephone to the Observer in April.<\/p>\n But the group\u2019s efforts led to two state investigations they hoped could reveal where their money had gone.<\/p>\n As American Log Homes peddled discount cabin kits to customers across the country, it traded on the same values that log cabin life evoked, especially among DIYers: hard work, self-reliance and tradition.<\/p>\n Szabo\u2019s father, James \u201cMike\u201d Wilson, had been in the log home industry since the 1980s, according to the company\u2019s website. Szabo joined him in 1994 after graduating from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro with a bachelor\u2019s degree in political science.<\/p>\n When Michele\u2019s son, Adam, was born in 2001, Michele and her father decided to \u201cbranch off\u201d and create their own company, American Log Homes, in 2002.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when we say our business is family owned and operated, we mean it,\u201d the website read before it was taken down in January. \u201cWe think we have the best job in the world \u2014 helping people get their dream home, an American log cabin or tiny house!\u201d<\/p>\n With home ownership becoming increasingly difficult amid high interest rates and inflationary prices, that dream has eluded many Americans. Some fraudsters have exploited would-be owners\u2019 desperation to their advantage: Last October, an Asheville man pleaded guilty to wire fraud<\/a> after at least two dozen customers in four states reported paying more than $2.5 million for log cabin kits that were never built. He was a former pastor<\/a>,<\/u> local media reported.<\/p>\n In 2019, a couple was charged with embezzlement and exploiting the elderly for bilking buyers in six Western North Carolina counties out of millions of dollars for log homes. The couple took hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time from most of the 20 victims. The more than $2 million they collected did not go to building the cabins they promised customers, law enforcement said.<\/a><\/p>\n Companies like American Log Homes promise lower entry fees to homebuilding than other methods, with would-be owners able to use the blueprints to build their log cabins themselves, if they desire. ALH\u2019s customers could choose one of 25 designs, with models ranging from about 1,000 square feet (the Waco) to more than 3,000 (the Dallas). The business also offered plans for tiny homes, about the size of an efficiency apartment.<\/p>\n The discounted packages appealed to Ed Danyo, who lives in the Millers Creek area of Wilkes County. The 62-year-old was looking for a log cabin to build on his 5-acre property in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He and his two senior Goldadors, Jake and Kobe, had outgrown his current cabin.<\/p>\n He, too, vetted the company before pulling the trigger. Its glowing online reviews \u2014 complete with pictures of log homes in progress \u2014 and its Better Business Bureau accreditation assured Danyo that the steeply discounted kits were legitimate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are so pleased with American Log Homes! Michele is the best! Every time I have called her with questions, she was quick to help and gave us exceptional service,\u201d one Tennessee reviewer wrote on Google in November.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are finally building the home of our dreams and American log homes has helped us every step of the way through it,\u201d another review reads.<\/p>\n