State Auditor Hunt Defends Personal Involvement In Deeds For Friend, Former Employee
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CHARLESTON - State Auditor Mark Hunt justified the use of his authority to sign delinquent property tax deeds on behalf of a friend and former employee of the State Auditor's Office whose wife was also a donor to Hunt's political campaigns, but didn't know if he was under federal investigation when asked on statewide talk radio Monday.
Speaking on WV MetroNews Talkline Monday morning, Hunt said he had received no target letter despite the office confirming to MetroNews at the end of October that a federal grand jury was reviewing information seized from the State Auditor's Office.
"I don't know," Hunt said. "The feds have asked for some documentation, but ... we have people in the office who handle those type of issues. I haven’t seen them."
According to documents obtained Monday through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed last week with the State Auditor's Office, Hunt personally signed nine delinquent property tax deeds on behalf of MAPA, Inc., a real estate company owned by Patrica Johns, the wife of former State Auditor's Office employee Robert L. Johns.
First reported Sunday by West Virginia Watch, Johns, a Charleston attorney and businessman, was brought on as a temporary employee after Hunt first took office in 2025. A request for comment to Johns was not returned.
According to West Virginia Watch and WV Checkbook, Johns was paid $14,193 for his services, which involved providing guidance on the near insolvency as McDowell County government at the time. Johns is a trustee for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
Also in 2025, Hunt personally signed eight quitclaim tax deeds for MAPA on March 28 and one deed on June 6 - nine deeds total according to the documents provided by the State Auditor's Office through the FOIA request. According to Hunt, Johns called him about signing the deeds.
Prior to 2022, State Code required the state auditor to appoint deputy commissioners of delinquent and nonentered lands for all 55 counties, who were required to be licensed attorneys and bonded, with the state auditor empowered to appoint an office employee as deputy commissioner when conflicts of interest or vacancies arise. After 2022, lawmakers amended state code to create one deputy commissioner based in Kanawha County.
The law requires the deputy commissioner to sign all quitclaim tax deeds and requires the deeds to be executed and delivered within "120 days after the purchaser's right to the deed accrued," as well as a $50 fee. State Code outlines civil procedures in the circuit court system to set aside deeds delivered by the State Auditor's Office after 120 days by the original owner, and the law mandates that the purchaser of a quitclaim deed must apply to a judge for execution of the deed if the State Auditor's Office fails to issue the deed within the statutory time frame.
The State Auditor's Office sold the tax liens for all nine properties to MAPA in May 2023, covering delinquent taxes on these properties for tax years 2021 and 2022, paying more than $32,000. But all nine quitclaim tax deeds were signed by Hunt after the 120-day window, in violation of State Code.
One of the quitclaim tax deeds signed by Hunt was for $1,688 purchased by MAPA previously owned by NAJ, LLC, which includes the same address as MAPA. According to a business organization search through the Secretary of State's Office, NAJ lists Robert L. Johns as a member and organizer of the real estate company.
According to certified letter, the deputy commissioner was prohibited from executing a quitclaim deed for the NAJ property after Dec. 24, 2024. But the quitclaim deed was clearly signed by Mark A. Hunt on March 28, 2025.
Speaking on Talkline, Hunt said despite the changes to State Code, he had legal authority to sign the deeds, the laws governing delinquent property sales remains unclear, and blamed his predecessor, current Attorney General J.B. McCuskey, and the Lands Division within the State Auditor's Office for being behind, even though these nine deeds were the only ones where Hunt personally involved himself on behalf of Johns.
"These deeds should have been signed under the previous administration, but they had been mishandled in some way in the Land Division that was covered up with boxes of checks and papers, and it was just a mess," Hunt said. "(Johns has) done everything – all the way up to receiving his deed, including paying for it – and we’ve let it lay and haven’t cashed the checks and haven’t issued the deeds. What should we do?"
"So, the auditor sitting in equity, me, decided we’ll sign the deeds rather than get sued and go to court, creating a little bit of savings in the court system and maybe a few savings in our bankroll as far as our defense of things," Hunt continued. "That division was in disarray. Disarray is not even the right word."
In a statement Monday afternoon in response to Hunt's Talkline interview, McCuskey, who served two terms as state auditor prior to Hunt and played a role in reforming the laws around delinquent property tax sales, denied Hunt's claims.
"The Land Division of the West Virginia State Auditor's Office has some of the hardest working public servants in the state," McCuskey said. "They are dedicated, intelligent and, above all, ethical. They manage an intricate system with many requirements and deadlines. They're true professionals, and I will not sit idly by and allow the current Auditor to disparage them. Claims that the land division was left in disarray do not match the facts of eight years of positive reform and success."
West Virginia Watch also reported that Patricia Johns, the wife of Robert Johns, donated $1,000 to Hunt's 2022 West Virginia Senate election and $1,000 to his 2024 election as state auditor. State Sen. Ryan Weld, who helped update the state's delinquent property tax sale laws in 2022, said Hunt's involvement circumvented processes put in place meant to protect the original owners of property.
"My big problem is that people often look at state government or government in general and say, 'well, it’s not there for me,'" said Weld, R-Brooke. "The auditor said that Mr. Johns called him and asked him about these nine deeds and where they were at, and if he would sign them and get them out the door for him. 'Well, I would do that for anybody.' Well, not everybody is your friend and has that ability to call you."
"It reeks of some sort of cronyism, and that’s why people look at government and say it doesn’t work for me," Weld continued.
"Mark Hunt invoked a chapter of the law, to say that he needed to take these actions so that they wouldn’t be sued," said Del. Tristan Leavitt, R-Kanawha, a member of the House Government Organization Committee. "But in order to take the actions that he took, the person trying to purchase the land would have to get a judge’s permission precisely because otherwise, they will be sued for issuing it outside of the 120 days.
"All of the code sections that he talked about today point directly to the fact that it doesn’t matter who signs it, no one in the auditor’s office is allowed to do it after 120 days in order to protect the rights of the person whose land is being taken away," Leavitt continued. "I think the discussion about just trying to do it to help a friend ... absolutely underscores the real question here, which is, did he get anything out of breaking law to help his friend? I think that’s a question for investigators to determine."
Earlier Monday morning, the West Virginia Democratic Party called for an independent investigation of Hunt and the State Auditor's Office to determine if there was any criminal wrongdoing in the signing of the nine deeds for the Johns family.
"Let's get this straight," said Del. Pushkin, D-Kanawha, chairman of the Democratic Party. "The State Auditor's Office handles approximately 17,000 property deeds a year. Mark Hunt personally signed nine of them, and every single one benefited a company connected to his longtime friend and employee, whose wife also contributed to his political campaigns. State law says those deeds are supposed to be signed by the deputy land commissioner, not the State Auditor. That raises an obvious question: Why did Mark Hunt single out these nine deeds for his personal attention?"