“AMERICAN Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino may be the latest victim of the financial crunch – her $1.3 million North Carolina home is in foreclosure.
Barrino, whose rags-to-riches rise was chronicled in a Lifetime channel movie she starred in herself, is accused of defaulting on a $58,000 loan from a shadowy Florida corporation, according to court papers.
The company, called Broward Energy Management, loaned Fantasia an undisclosed sum to pay back taxes she reportedly owed the IRS, according to its lawyer, Laurence Goldman.
The singer never paid back the full amount she borrowed, Goldman said.
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The lawyer refused to provide any information on Broward Energy, citing client confidentiality, but a records search showed that the address of the company is a modest, private residence in Weston, Fla.
Freddy J. Chacin is listed as the manager of the company. Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful last night.
Court papers show that the huge 6,500-square-foot house, which Fantasia bought last year for $1.3 million, will be auctioned off Jan. 12.
Records show she took a $1-million mortgage on the property in Charlotte from the Bank of America. Goldman said that Barrino never answered the complaint against her and a judge ruled for the plaintiff by default.
A woman who answered the door at the house and identified herself as a relative of Fantasia claimed the whole thing is a misunderstanding.
She said the singer’s former lawyer is responsible for the mess because he never showed up in court to challenge the judgement against her.
Her new lawyer, Gary Greenberg, did not return calls yesterday.
“If he chooses to get back to you, he will,” someone answering the phones at Greenberg’s office in LA told The Post last night.
The house is located in one of Charlotte’s ritziest neighborhoods on a golf course. The two-story stucco home boasts a large arched wooden front door and is decorated throughout with exotic art. A duel sweeping staircase greets visitors in its front hall, while tropical fish frolic in a massive fish tank upstairs that is visible from the front hall. A large, glass dining room table is adorned with what appears to be a statue of a cougar.
Fantasia was born and raised about 80 miles north of Charlotte in High Point, North Carolina. She was raped by a high school classmate, according to her book, and feeling harassed and embarrassed, dropped out of school. After she won “Idol,” she revealed that she had never learned how to read.
Barrino, now 24, became pregnant at age 16, and gave birth to her daughter, Zion Quari Barrino, in 2001.
She starred as Celie in Oprah Winfrey’s Broadway production of “The Color Purple” and is expected to appear in a new film version of the musical.