Shawn Gerety Drug Convictions

Shawn T. Gerety of BuildTrend has a record of Pennsylvania drug crimes.

Gerety was arrested in Indiana County, PA in October 1994 and charged with Use and Possession of Drugs and Drug Paraphanalia.  He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor and paid a fine.

Gerety was then arrested by Pennsylvania State Police in Franklin County, PA in March 1995 and charged with Manufacturing, Delivering or Possession with Intent to Deliver Controlled Substances.  He ultimately pleaded to Felony - Delivery in November 1995 and was imprisoned in the Franklin County Jail in Chambersburg from February 1996 until parole-probation in April 1996.

Perhaps drug convictions at age 25 are not relevant to Shawn's contractor businesses now. Or maybe they are.

Some victims of Shawn's contractor fraud schemes are wondering if perhaps some of the money he collected for home improvement projects that would never start or advance beyond the demolition stage actually went to pay drug-related debts.  We are also hearing of a number of other theories about where the money may be.  Unfortunately for customers, very little of the funds he collected recently has gone to work on BuildTrend's contracted projects.

Pennsylvania Criminal Records of BuildTrend VP

Here is the Montgomery County PA criminal record of BuildTrend VP Vincent Cottrell.

Vincent was charged in Pennsylvania with: Theft by Deception - False Impression. Theft by Unlawful Taking.  Receiving Stolen Property.  Deceptive Business Practices. 

Following his incarceration in New Jersey from August 2010 to March 2011, it looks like Vincent spent a few days in Montgomery County PA prison the very same month he was released by NJ and until bail of $300 was posted by a Carolyn S. Mellwig of Delran, NJ.

This supplements a prior post about Vincent's New Jersey criminal record for Theft and Theft by Deception :
http://buildtrend.blogspot.com/2015/06/criminal-record-of-vincent-e.html

The scale of thefts by BuildTrend and related parties appear to be orders of magnitude larger.

RBSF & J.D. Kelly

J.D. Kelly Corp (John Kelly) is a registered general contractor also associated with this ring of scammers. We are hearing of many J.D. Kelly connections to Gerety, Cottrell and BuildTrend, including common subcontractors, suppliers and representatives.  J.D. Kelly Corp has been a registered Pennsylvania contractor #035571 since July 2009 with a Bucks County PA address.

RBSF Construction Company (Garvin Donaghy) is another registered Pennsylvania contractor intertwined with the BuildTrend ring.  We are hearing that Garvin has been a subcontractor on several BuildTrend jobs, approaching customers with contracted and substantially paid BuildTrend projects directly for payments and threatening liens on BuildTrend customer properties where very little work had been completed.  RBSF is Garvin Donaghy's PA registered contractor #114667 since March 2015 with a Media (Delaware County, PA) address. Garvin also owns at least one other contractor entity that has a current registration in the Commonwealth: RBS Builders Inc., a PA registered Home Improvement Contractor #088891 since 2012 and using a Drexel Hill address.

Garvin made the news when the Philadelphia Parking Authority released a list of Top 25 parking offenders :

No. 16 on the list, Delaware County's Donagnew Builders, is owned by Garvin Donaghy, who has operated a network of construction companies across the Philadelphia suburbs and in Camden. Donagnew has $9,632 in unpaid tickets and 144 violations. Donaghy, who repeatedly has been sued in Pennsylvania and New Jersey by construction suppliers, did not respond to messages left at his home and business addresses. 

Perhaps when creditors (and parking bureaucrats) are in pursuit, creating and registering new entities while collapsing and bankrupting spent corporate shells helps one to stay a few steps ahead.

Delaware County Victim Contacts

We are hearing Delco victims are reporting crimes by the BuildTREND-Gerety-Cottrell-Trend contractor ring to detectives.  If you have information to share:

Delaware County District Attorney’s Office

Criminal Investigation Division

(610) 891-4700

We have also heard about a crime report filed with the Pennsylvania State Police Media Barracks in 2014.

Contractor fraud victims should also report to the Attorney General 1-888-520-6680.  

Montgomery County Victim Contacts

We are hearing victims in Montgomery County have been reporting thefts by BuildTREND to Lower Merion since December 2014. 

Lower Merion Police Department

71 E. Lancaster Ave

Ardmore, PA 19003

610-645-6235

Contractor fraud victims should also report to the PA Attorney General (1-888-520-6680). 

Contributions to this blog

Interest in this blog is exploding with over 100 views per day each day in the past week.

A number of parties have contributed content here.  If you have information about BuildTREND to share, please send to: buildtrendscam@gmail.com 

We'll post reliable information while protecting anonymity unless you ask for attribution. One can also contribute to comments sections which are available under each post.  

Bucks County Victim Contacts

Contractor fraud victims in Bucks County should consider contacting Detective Eric Landamia and Deputy DA Alan Garabedian. Main numbers: 215-348-6344 and 6354.

Here is news coverage about their criminal prosecution of a fraudulent Yardley PA contractor:

Succi repeatedly signed contracts for renovations, additions and new construction, only to demand more money for shoddy, unfinished work that he typically failed to complete. When customers tried taking him to court, Succi would file for bankruptcy protection, often changing the name of his company to further avoid collection efforts.

Succi was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison after conviction on 27 felony counts.

John Succi does not have a known relationship to Shawn Gerety, Vince, Garvin, John, Jamie or others in the BuildTrend ring, but the scams and the experiences of multiple victims sound similar.

9/21/2015 update:

We are also hearing about Bucks County victims of the BuildTrend ring reporting to Detective Tim Williams of the Warrington Township Police Department.

BuildTREND in Bankruptcy

Hearing from multiple sources that Shawn T. Gerety is telling attorneys contacting him on behalf of victims that BuildTREND Construction LLC is in bankruptcy.

Yet no bankruptcy filing to date.  If any readers can confirm definitively, please send info in and we'll post to the blog.

Shawn Gerety at the beach, summer 2015

Where has customer money gone if initial payments collected by Shawn for materials to start projects has not gone to work on the jobs?

What other entities and assets has Shawn been using to hide stolen funds from victims whose projects he will never complete?