Saturday, May 16, 2009

NY AG Thwarts Contractor's Attempt To Hide Assets In Effort To Avoid Paying Restitution To Screwed Over Homeowners

From the Office of the New York Attorney General:
  • Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo [...] announced that his office has obtained a court order to obtain a contractor’s property, which will be sold to help pay back consumers he defrauded in his home improvement contract business.

  • Brian Tyrrell was previously ordered to pay restitution(1) to the victims of his shoddy and incomplete home improvement work. In an attempt to hide his assets and avoid making payment, Tyrrell fraudulently transferred land he owned in Ulster County to a friend after the Attorney General’s lawsuit was filed. The property was then given to Tyrrell’s brother.

  • As a result of the Attorney General’s intervention and the Ulster County Supreme Court order, the property will now be sold by the state and the proceeds distributed to the consumers to whom Tyrrell owes restitution.

For the entire press release, see Attorney General Cuome Obtains Order To Sell Contractor's Property To Pay Back Ripped Off Consumers (Contractor transferred Port Ewen property to others to hide assets).

For more on homeowners left in the lurch due to actions by builders/contractors, go here, go here, go here, go here, and go here.

Go here for other posts on other home improvement contractors hammered by the NY AG.

(1) According to the NY AG press release, Tyrrell, of Vienna, Virginia (formerly of Macks Road in Highland), demanded large up-front payments for home repair projects and then either failed to complete the jobs or did the work in an unprofessional, shoddy manner. Tyrrell also failed to return to repair the defective work or refund customers’ money, the press release states. In 2005 the Attorney General’s Office sued Tyrrell and won a judgment of more than $124,000 in restitution to consumers he defrauded in his home improvement contract businesses, Tyrrell Construction Corp and Dura-Crete LLC. StiffingContractorsTheta Cuomo hammers contractors