AUSTIN, Texas — Full details have been revealed in the FBI investigation that led to the arrest of Austin auto dealership executive Erik Charles Maund.
Maund and three other men are facing a federal indictment in connection with the deaths of an estranged couple in Tennessee as part of an alleged murder-for-hire plot.
Maund, 46, is the grandson of Charles Maund and a partner of Maund Automotive Group, a car dealer in Austin that sells Toyota and Volkswagen cars.
A new report from KVUE’s media partners at the Austin American-Statesman by Senior Reporter Tony Plohetski shows Maund was driving home from a hunting trip at a South Texas ranch last week when federal agents, alongside San Marcos police and Texas DPS troopers, surrounded Maund’s black Toyota SUV.
The FBI had likely been surveilling Maund for days following a yearlong confidential investigation, the Statesman reports. It’s alleged Maund directed and financed the million-dollar plot that left two people dead to hide his affair.
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A federal indictment unsealed on Monday showed Maund had begun a relationship with an aesthetician, 33-year-old Holly Williams, using the fake name “Erik Moore” while visiting his son at college in Nashville, Tennessee. Text messages obtained by investigators show Maund last saw Williams at a Nashville hotel in February 2020, calling her “beautiful” when arranging to meet up.
The indictment says Maund began receiving demands for money three weeks later from Williams’ on-again, off-again boyfriend, 36-year-old William Lanway, with whom she had a violent relationship. Lanway had reportedly traced Maund’s cellphone number to his auto company, revealing his name and position.
Authorities say instead of turning the alleged extortion over to police or a civil lawyer, Maund went to an Austin-based security company and developed a plan with three other men over the next three weeks to kidnap and kill Williams and her ex-boyfriend. The group allegedly coordinated via encrypted cellphone messaging apps as Maund sent a flow of high-dollar payments.
The Maund family has now hired Austin attorneys Perry Minton and Sam Bassett to defend Erik Maund locally and in Nashville, according to the Statesman.
Attorneys told the Statesman facts emerged in trials that do not match initial allegations by investigators.
“We intend to give Erik Maund the vigorous defense to these allegations that he deserves and that the law provides,” they said.
You can see the Statesman’s full report on how federal investigators built their case here.
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