Predator In Repo Community Jailed By Feds
Federal court records show that John N. Babb, a South Carolina resident associated with Palmetto State Recovery and former member of Repo Buzz, has been charged in a federal criminal case filed February 10, 2026, in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. The indictment, case number 8:26-cr-00117, alleges that Babb participated in a scheme to defraud lienholders through conduct connected to repossession-related business activity.
According to the federal indictment, prosecutors allege that beginning in or about the summer of 2025 and continuing through the date of the indictment, Babb devised a scheme to obtain money and property from lienholders through false representations.
The indictment states that expensive trucks were purchased in the name of Palmetto State Recovery, LLC, for which his wife served as registered agent, with financing provided by third-party lenders that became first lienholders through the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles. Prosecutors further allege that Babb, operating under Homeland Investigation Service, LLC, later filed documents with a local magistrate claiming possession of the vehicles and asserting that payment was owed for services rendered, while representing the vehicles as abandoned.
The indictment alleges that Homeland and Palmetto were associated with the same address in Hodges, South Carolina, and that disclosures regarding ownership and lienholder relationships were not accurately represented.
Federal prosecutors allege that these representations led a state magistrate to authorize an auction process involving five trucks that would have resulted in purchasers obtaining clear title and lienholders losing their security interest in the vehicles.
The indictment states that the auction did not proceed after irregularities were identified by the magistrate’s office. Prosecutors also allege that Babb attempted to obtain clear title to one truck by
The indictment includes eight counts of mail fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1341. Prosecutors allege that certified letters were mailed during June 2025 to addresses in Texas, South Carolina, Ohio, and Maryland as part of what they describe as a fraudulent mechanic’s lien process.
The filing also seeks forfeiture of property and proceeds traceable to the alleged offenses.
The 2026 federal prosecution follows earlier federal criminal proceedings involving Babb. In the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, he pleaded guilty on July 19, 2011, to a two-count federal indictment charging transportation and possession of child pornography. According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky, Babb had been arrested on August 30, 2009, in Kentucky on a federal bank-fraud warrant after fleeing law enforcement in South Carolina. During that arrest, two laptop computers were seized from his hotel room. While conducting a forensic review related to the bank-fraud investigation, investigators discovered images of child pornography. A later search warrant determined that both computers contained numerous images and videos of child pornography. He was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell to eight years and one month in federal prison followed by 20 years of supervised release, and he was ordered to forfeit a 2006 Dodge Durango and the two laptops. The case was prosecuted as part of the federal Project Safe Childhood initiative and investigated by the United States Secret Service.
Public records also show earlier law-enforcement encounters involving Babb before the federal conviction. In reporting by the Associated Press carried by the Herald-Journal, authorities in Spartanburg County announced arrests in 2007 involving members of the Chesnee Police Department following a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigation. According to the report, investigators alleged that a police officer allowed Babb to pose as an officer during a traffic stop and provided him an AR-15 rifle. The report stated that Babb was charged at the time with pointing and presenting a firearm and impersonating a police officer, and that authorities were searching for him in connection with the case. The article also described other unrelated misconduct allegations involving officers within the department. Those events were reported as part of a broader investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
The prior conviction and earlier law-enforcement incidents are separate from the newly filed 2026 federal indictment. The current mail-fraud case remains pending, and no findings of guilt have been made regarding the new allegations.
The federal court process will determine the outcome as the case proceeds through arraignment, pretrial litigation, and any potential trial or plea proceedings.
Dave Branch
