After Boston-based firm SUCCESS Real Estate abruptly shut its doors in mid-December last year, agents and their clients were left with many questions. Roughly 10 months later, answers to at least some of those questions are surfacing. 

Last Friday, the firm’s former broker-owner Steve Webster was arraigned on charges of fiduciary embezzlement, larceny over $1,200 by single scheme, witness intimidation and publishing a false financial statement, according to a statement from Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz’s office.

According to the DA’s office, the charges stem from Webster’s abrupt closure of his firm, which left more than $1 million in a client escrow fund unaccounted for and roughly $500,000 in unpaid commission owed to agents.

“The firm’s sudden closure, delivered without warning, blindsided employees, many of whom were actively engaged in pending real estate transactions where Success was holding buyer deposits in escrow and owed substantial commission checks,” a statement from the district attorney’s office reads. “The timing of the closure, delivered without explanation, left clients, agents and counterparties in limbo and exposed the extent of the company’s unresolved escrow obligations.”

The sudden closure of the firm triggered a months-long investigation, during which the DA’s office uncovered records, accounting ledgers and witness interviews from South Shore Bank and Rockland Trust, which the authorities claim show Webster engaging in a pattern of systematic financial misconduct between 2023 and when the firm shut in December 2024.

At the close of this investigation, a warrant for Webster’s arrest was issued. He was ultimately arrested on Sept. 30, 2025 in Palm Beach County, Florida, but was brought back to Massachusetts for his arraignment last week. 

He was held on $100,000 cash bail and will only be released if he relinquishes all travel documents, remains in Massachusetts while the case is in progress, and meets with probation services on a regular basis. The state had requested a $500,000 cash bail. 

Webster’s next scheduled court appearance is slated for Nov. 13, 2025, for a pre-trial conference. 

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