Complaint Review: Dennis Troesh

If any readers of RipoffReport.com also keep up with those in the rarified air of Philanthropy.com (insert guffaw here), you might have noticed a rather sizeable donation made by Dennis Troesh to Loma Linda University Health a few years back for the building of a new children’s hospital.

Dennis Troesh (and to be fair, along with his wife) donated $100 million to the cause. Check it out here: (https://www.philanthropy.com/article/No-24-DennisCarol/151811)

Just tugs at your heartstrings, doesn’t it? To quote from the Philanthropy.com article: “The Troeshes volunteer at the hospital, and their son-in-law once worked there. They said they are donating the money not only because many of their grandchildren were born at the medical center, which is near Los Angeles, but also because they felt a responsibility to the area.”

Such a feel-good story, right? Don’t be fooled. When it comes to Troesh, there’s always a deeper play involved. This is not straight-up philanthropy. This was done to provide a sizeable federal tax deduction for Troesh. Imagine wiping off $100 million under your “charitable donations” line on your tax return.

Troesh is a billionaire. His worth was estimated by Forbes in 2012 at $2 billion. So make no mistake, he’s a player.

But it seems like every deal he does is with a Machiavellian ulterior motive in play. He gets the upper hand, largely because of his blinding wealth culled from his lucrative concrete business, and then proceeds to screw whomever he’s working with. And I use the word “screw” consciously as a pejorative because Troesh always comes out on top no matter what the project, to the detriment at times of anyone else involved.

Average cost per cubic yard for concrete these days is $90 per. And that doesn’t include delivery charges, pouring charges, slab work, site prep, etc. You get the picture. The markup on concrete (materials dug from the ground, like cement, aggregate material such as sand or fine gravel or pebbles, plus water) is pretty significant.

Think about paying $18 for a plate of pasta at a local restaurant – it’s one of the highest markup items on the menu. I mean, come on, you’re literally consuming pennies-worth of pasta and sauce. It’s like that with Troesh’s Robertson’s Ready Mix, a leading producer of ready-mix concrete products. They are in Las Vegas as well as a number of counties in California.

So beware of Dennis “I Always Get the Upper Hand Because I Have Way More Money Than You” Troesh. Think twice about engaging with him at any level on any project. You most certainly will come out on the short end of the stick.