Gerety arraigned in Delaware for criminal theft and fraud

Rough week for Mr. Gerety.  In addition to the Attorney General in Pennsylvania bringing civil suit on behalf of multiple victims of his home renovation contractor scams, Gerety was charged criminally in the State of Delaware on multiple counts of theft and home improvement fraud after having been arrested in Maryland. 

Media reports indicate Gerety was arraigned in Delaware Superior Court on December 16 on five counts of theft and four counts of home improvement fraud. He appears to be out of custody and free on $20,000 bail.

According to anonymous posts to comments on this blog, Gerety may be staying at a Days Inn in Lancaster, PA and driving a Ford Explorer. Recent cell phone numbers are 443-365-3202 and 443-944-3838. 

In early December, this blog had confirmed Gerety had been arrested and held in Worcester County, Maryland near his oceanfront condo. 

Recent media reports:
12/20/2016 Delaware Business Now article by Doug Rainey
12/20/2016 ABC27 coverage by Miles Snyder
12/21/2016 Lancaster Online article by Dan Nephin
12/20/2016 WGAL Channel8 coverage by Brian Roche
12/21/2016 "Home Improvement Contractor Wanted in Two States"

Gerety sued by Pennsylvania Attorney General

BuildTrend and Shawn Gerety (aka Sean Gerety, Shawn T. Gerety) have been sued by the Attorney General of Pennsylvania.

12/20/2016

HARRISBURG — Attorney General Bruce R. Beemer today announced the filing of a consumer protection lawsuit against a Lancaster County company and its owner following allegations that the company accepted large sums of money from consumers for home improvement projects that were never completed. 

The lawsuit against Shawn Gerety and BuildTREND Construction LLC alleges violations of the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act and the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. The lawsuit is the result of an investigation conducted by the Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Public Statement from the Attorney General

Read the complaint filed 12/14/2016 here:
Attorney General v Gerety/BuildTrend (Case. No 692 MD 2016) - Complaint

Docket sheet:
Commonwealth Court Case 692 MD 2016

Cottrell & Kelly sued by homeowner

While Cottrell awaits trial in Delaware County on January 2016 felony criminal charges relating to his actions as a home renovation contractor on a project for a Drexel Hill (PA) family, he and contractor John Kelly are also co-defendants in a civil lawsuit by a another Havertown (PA) customer.

Vince Cottrell (aka "Vincent Edward C.") and John Kelly (aka "Butch" and JD Kelly Corp.) have been defendants in a lawsuit filed in August 2016 by Jeff Marmon.  This Havertown homeowner alleges fraud, negligence and unfair trade practices and demands a jury trial in Delaware County:

Civil Complaint: Marmon v Cottrell & Kelly

Customers who know Gerety, Cottrell and the rest of their crew from when they were identifying themselves as BuildTrend would probably recognize many similarities to Marmon's story about Cottrell, Kelly and co:  foreman changes, failure to pay subcontractors, demands for additional money, threats of breach of contract, mechanics liens, denial of accountability and position at the company when the project ultimately goes wrong, etc.

Full proceedings in that case including the latest responses and motions are here:

Delaware County Case 2016-006677

As cases mount, victims who never saw their renovations started or completed are saying this doesn't look like poor business management by the contractors... Rather, this looks more and more like a deliberate business strategy to collect funds and NOT do the work.

Gerety arrested

Sean Gerety (aka Shawn Gerety) was recently arrested in Worcester County, Maryland on criminal charges related to his latest construction contracting business.

If any readers have more details or links to public information about Gerety's arrest, please send to buildtrendscam@gmail.com and we'll post to the blog.  As always, this blog posts factual information and defaults to protecting anonymity unless a contributor requests attribution.

Update on Cottrell's trial in DelCo on felony charges

Delaware County's District Attorney is moving forward with a November 28 Oct. 17 Sept. 19 trial date for felony criminal charges against Vincent Cottrell according to the docket.

He is also known as Vinny, Vincent Edward Cottrell III, Vincent Edward C., Thomas Cottrell, Thomas Dadino and possibly other names as well and believed to be representing various construction contracting, home renovation products and lending businesses in Pennsylvania and New York today.

Here are prior posts on this blog about Vince (with links to public information):
2016-Jun Back in Business
2016-Jan Delco DA brings criminal charges
2015-Sep Pennsylvania Criminal Records of BuildTrend VP
2015-Aug Vincent Executive Contractor
2015-Jun Vince Cottrell - BuildTREND Vice President
2015-Jun Criminal Theft by Deception
2015-Jun Lawsuit reveals BuildTREND's debts & contracts with Cottrell

Back in business under new names

Vince Cottrell has a fresh business website for his Trend Consulting Group.

Don't confuse Cottrell's TCG (Trend Consulting Group) with Gerety's TIG or TGI (Trend Investment Group)... According to them, these new names and entities have nothing to do with the BuildTrend Construction they are attempting to bankrupt. Customers of BuildTrend who in aggregate are out well over $1 million for contracted work that never started or advanced very far are generally struggling with this explanation as they see both Sean and Vince continuing in the exact same contracting businesses under new names after abandoning their projects and refusing to return funds paid for work that the contractors never completed.

If you'd like to engage Vince and his current companies for any construction project management assignments in the Philadelphia or New York regions, his current business phone is 484-728-4140.

Cottrell is recently using at least a couple of newer Twitter identities @TrendGroup30 (TCG PM Management) and @Vincent30 (Vincent Edward C.)  Perhaps like Sean (aka Shawn) Gerety, Vinny is also moving on from his prior names. How many names have they used in the past and what other names may they be using currently?

Vincent Edward Cottrell III lives at 1228 Foss Ave, Drexel Hill, PA.   He is currently awaiting trial in criminal charges in Delaware County for receiving advance payment and failing to perform services, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property in a single instance of thefts from a Drexel Hill family with multiple young children.

Vincent is also driving a newer car these days (white Ford Explorer).

Shawn is now Sean

Bill collectors, creditors and homeowners who may be wondering why projects they made payments for are not advancing should take note: Sean T. Gerety is Shawn T. Gerety.  He changes his own name, much as he continues to change his contracting business entity names.  See notice of the legal name change from the Worcester County, Maryland court below.

Sean Gerety (aka Shawn Gerety) currently lives on the beach in Maryland and drives a gray Jeep (PA plates JHV2225) while operating his contracting businesses. Gerety has used phone number 443-944-3838 recently.

When filing to change his name with the court in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings for his BuildTrend entity, Gerety listed two Ocean City mailing addresses:

7001 Atlantic Avenue, Ocean City, MD

PO Box 3219, Ocean City, MD

Trend Investment Group and BuildTrend Construction were two of the registered contractor entities he used in Pennsylvania and names he is currently using in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania appear to be close derivatives of these names.

CIRCUIT COURT FOR WORCESTER COUNTY 
CIVIL NO. 23C-15-1419 
IN THE MATTER OF SHAWN TIMOTHY GERETY 
FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO 
SEAN TIMOTHY GERETY 
NOTICE (ADULT) (DOM REL 61) 

The above petitioner has field a petition for Change of Name in which he seeks to change his name from SHAWN TIMOTHY GERETY to SEAN TIMOTHY GERETY. The petitioner is seeking this name change for the following reasons: “I ALWAYS WANTED TO CHANGE MY NAME TO THE ORIGINAL IRISH SPELLING.”. 

Any person may file an objection to the Petition on or before the 22ND day of DECEMBER, 2015. The objection must be supported by an affidavit and served upon the Petitioner in accordance with Maryland Rule 1-321. Failure to file an objection or affidavit within the time allowed may result in a judgment by default or the granting of the relief sought. 

A copy of this notice shall be published one time in a newspaper of general circulation in the county at least fifteen (15) days before the deadline to fine an objection. 

Name of Newspaper: Maryland Coast Dispatch Date of Publication DECEMBER 04, 2015 

SUSAN R. BRANIECKI 
Clerk of the Circuit Court for Worcester County 
Room 104 - Court House 
One W. Market Street 
Snow Hill, MD 21863-1074 12-04

HomeAdvisor in the news for promoting criminal contractors

Readers of this blog who are victims of BuildTrend thefts in Pennsylvania/Delaware noticed news coverage of a HomeAdvisor.com-vetted contractor in Georgia:

26NBC Augusta On Your Side

Taking a deposit and not starting or completing the work, criminal records, fake names, multiple business identities with similar names, HomeAdvisor recommendations, using his same old tricks to target new victims...  Does this sound like anyone we know?

See prior posts about BuildTrend's use of HomeAdvisor.com:
11/18/2015 HomeAdvisor's role in BuildTrend fraud

How many of the crooked contractors in the BuildTrend crew are on homeadvisor today to source their next hits?

Same contractor scams, new names?

This blog has recently received tips about several business identities that appear to be in current use by the ring of crooked contractors who were previously operating as BuildTrend, Trend Construction, JD Kelly and similar and related names. At least some of the new entity names we are hearing about are registered HIC's with the PA Attorney General.  The blog plans to post names here soon.

If readers have any information to contribute on this topic or any other, please email to: buildtrendscam@gmail.com

This blog will always default to protecting anonymity unless a contributor asks for attribution. Multiple victims of these scammers have contributed information. Unfortunately, the victim count appears to be growing.

Commonwealth v. Cottrell update

Here's the Criminal Docket of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County as the DA prepares for trial of crooked contractor Vincent Cottrell for this thefts from a family who paid him for a home renovation project he abandoned after taking the money.

Anthony Scanlon will be the judge.

Pre-trial conference is scheduled for May 9.

Cottrell is charged with:

1. Receives Advance Payment for Services and Fails to Perform
2. Theft by Unlawful Taking - Movable Property
3. Receiving Stolen Property

In that case, Cottrell is no longer charged with Thefts by Deception or Identify Theft.   Do prosecutors now believe Cottrell was cooperating with other contractors and contractor entities rather than misrepresenting them?

Cottrell has a long prior record of theft charges in Delaware County, Montgomery County and Philadelphia PA. Please note the court's summary page here does NOT include Cottrell's New Jersey convictions for which he served prison time.

This blog's prior posts about Cottrell:
1/19/2016 Delco DA brings criminal charges against Vincent Cottrell
9/21/2015 PA Criminal Records
8/18/2015 Vincent executive contractor
6/11/2015 Vince Cottrell - BuildTREND Vice President
6/11/2015 Criminal Theft by Deception
6/11/2015 Lawsuit reveals BuildTREND's debts & contracts with Cottrell

Vincent's current business website is here:
Trend Consulting Group

Is BuildTrend bankruptcy attempt a fraud?

Shawn Gerety - June 2015 

A blog reader noticed January 2015 news that the Pennsylvania Attorney General is challenging the bankruptcy attempt of a consignment store near Pittsburgh.  In that case, the AG alleges false pretenses, false representations and fraud/embezzlement by store owners when they took more than $50,000 of value from 200+ consignors knowing they would never fulfill obligations to try to sell the products through the store and pay the consignors.

To be clear, that matter has no direct connection to BuildTrend.  However, victims of BuildTrend see parallels to BuildTrend's attempt to discharge debts through a Chapter 7 bankruptcy process.

From the filings with the bankruptcy court, BuildTrend had well over $1 million in unfinished projects. Gerety, Cottrell, Kelly, Donaghy and their other conspirators so far appear to have gotten away with stealing much more than the store owners by collecting deposits and pre-payments for construction work only to abandon the projects and perform almost none of the work.

Could law enforcement challenge BuildTrend's bankruptcy as a fraud?

Contributors to this blog have no insight on possible law enforcement actions, but this is an interesting question.

Cottrell criminal hearing now set for March 17

Update Feb 18:
Vincent's preliminary hearing has been continued (again) to March 17 and the case has also been assigned to a new judge, Elisa Lancianca.  Apparently Judge Radano is Vincent's neighbor in Drexel Hill, which could be a factor in the new judge assignment.

Here's the new docket sheet which shows the Delaware County criminal charges against crooked contractor Vincent E. Cottrell:
Criminal Docket MJ-32253-CR-0000010-2016

Original Feb 4 post:
Criminal Docket MJ-32134-CR-0000003-2016 shows the charges against home improvement contractor Vincent E. Cottrell:

• Receives Advance Payment For Services and Fails to Perform 
• Theft By Unlaw Taking-Movable Prop 
• Theft By Decep-False Impression 
• Receiving Stolen Property 
• Identity Theft

According to public information in the docket, Officer Timothy Deery arrested Cottrell and Asst. District Attorney Jessica Conley is the prosecutor representing Delaware County.

Judge Robert Radano continued a Feb 2 hearing and has now scheduled the first hearing for Feb 16 at 8:30am. 

Gerety / BuildTrend bankruptcy hearing continued

From public filings related to Case 15-17039-sr with US Bankruptcy Court  Eastern District of Pennsylvania we see:

• The judge granted the motion of Barry Solodky to resign as counsel representing the Debtor (BuildTrend Construction) on Jan 13 (entered into the record on Jan 17).  There is no indication if Gerety and BuildTrend have new counsel. 
• The hearing with the judge and trustee scheduled for Wednesday, Jan 27 was continued. If any readers can confirm the day/time/location please post to comments. 

To follow the filings around Gerety's attempt to discharge BuildTrend debts through a try at Chapter 7 bankruptcy go to this link: https://ecf.paeb.uscourts.gov/ and search Case 15-17039.  You may need to set up a Pacer account if you do not already have one. 

Delco DA brings criminal charges against Vincent Cottrell

Multiple news outlets are reporting that Vincent E. Cottrell III was arrested and "charged with misrepresenting himself as a contractor and taking payments for work that was never completed"

CBSPhilly video link:
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2016/01/19/crooked-contractor-accused-of-scamming-50000-from-delco-family/


Delaware County Daily Times
Upper Darby contractor busted for taking $52G, not doing the work
http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20160119/NEWS/160119526

Philadelphia Inquirer
DA: Fake Contractor stole $50,000
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160120_DA__Fake_contractor_stole__50_000.html#gmtUVyfBBRPezWyF.03

According to the articles, the Delco DA says Cottrell stole over $50,000 from an Upper Darby, Pennsylvania couple while misrepresenting himself as an agent of JD Kelly Corp. 

The news sources indicate Cottrell has been released on $75,000 bail and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Feb 2 before Magisterial District Judge Robert J. Radano.  

Of course, many BuildTrend "customers" are also familiar with Cottrell because he was VP of BuildTrend Construction around the same time in 2014. 

Indeed, as exhibits in Cottrell's own January 2015 civil lawsuit against BuildTrend CEO Shawn Gerety demonstrate, Vincent Cottrell had knowing connection and economic linkage to Gerety's BuildTrend and Trend Investment Group registered contractor entities. See contracts which both Cottrell and Gerety appear to have signed in September 2013 and June 2014. 

Based on recent filings in BuildTrend's Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, BuildTrend abandoned over $1,000,000 in unfinished projects and lists at least 12 homeowners as material creditors.  The scale of thefts by Gerety, BuildTrend, Trend and other contractor front entities could be orders of magnitude larger than the crimes for which Cottrell has been charged in Delco. 

Victims of these crooked contractors have observed common schemes, common sub-contractors and numerous common connections between the JD Kelly, RBSF, BuildTrend Construction, Trend Investment Group and Trend Consulting Group entities. Many of these entities appear to be in business today.