Complaint Review: Todd M. Von Stein

Nearly everyone I know who comes in contact with Todd Von Stein leaves the relationship (professional or personal), with significant financial damage, in my opinion.

I would strongly encourage any one who comes in contact with this man, or his associates like Shelley McCafferty in Iowa City or Pam George in Altoona/Des Moines Iowa, or in ANY Capacity pay the $69 for a complete background search.  It would have saved me, my vendors and my customers nearly $300,000 had we all been more diligent about conducting back ground searches on our employees and our vendors. 

If you do not want to pay the money for the back ground search, please do yourself and everyone else around you a favor and visit Iowa Courts Online. 

http://www.iowacourts.state.ia.us/ESAWebApp/SelectFrame

Under "Trial Court" select "case Search".  In the top table, (Name Search) Enter Todd in First Name, Michael in Middle and then Von Stein.  You fill find about 12 or 13 cases of Todd being sued by businesses for non-payment for services.  Notice they are in large part "vendors" in a construction related industry. 

Do another search, this time chaning the last name to all one word: Vonstein - Todd, Michael , 2.23.1966.  Here you will find a much longer list of individuals who were suing Todd for non payment for services rendered, etc. 

One of them is an important one to pay special note to:  case number 05251 FECR024354

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a restitution of $140,000 and change to Morrell Plumbing.  According to this it is a Class C Felony for Theft.  If you review others you will find that while he was sitting in the Newton Correctional Facility serving only a small part of his time (wish he'd have been held much longer), there are public records of other warrants for arrest for theft.  Some of those were dismissed.  Don't know about you, but I've never been arrested for anything, let alone theft.  So this ought to raise a red flag.

Many of us have tried to get the police involved.  They do not seem to be interested.  They have told me "its not illegal to lie to potential customers in Iowa".  I've been told that Todd will tell potential clients that he's been with the same company for 10 plus years, which is not remotely true. 

I showed them records I have of "Kiting" which is illegal.  Here is the situation I experienced.  I realized after I started receiving phone calls from vendors that Todd was not paying them.  There were many vendors I'd never even heard of.  I asked why they gave him credit and they told me Todd talked a good talk, told them he was "owner" or "partner" in the business, and so they believed he would pay them.

Todd is famous amoungst the vendors for telling them "the check is in the mail", but the check is rarely ever in the mail, based on what I've been told.  Anyway, upon learning of this behavior, I took over control of all checks and payments.  I refused to write a check unless we had money in the account (there were over $4000 worth of bank over draft fees last quarter of 2007!!! I later found out with my accountant!).  So in early 2008 I started paying bills.  I refused to pay them unless there was money in the bank account.  Todd learned that if he deposited a check through the ATM in another city somewhere in the state, that money would show up online immediately.  So he would tell me that there was money in the account, and then I'd go online, see that there was, and pay bills based on that.  

Well, two weeks later, I'd receive AT MY HOME ADDRESS where Todd couldn't intercept them, statements from my bank showing that the check that was deposited was A PERSONAL CHECK from Todd Von Stein's PERSONAL CHECKING ACCOUNT, and that the check, not surprisingly, bounced.  There were 3-4 of them totalling around $12000 written within days of each other.  Not only did I have to come up with the money to cover that $12,000, but also over draft and other fees.  I subsequently terminated him.  I went to the office, took all my stuff and all the business stuff out of there and left him a note that he was fired.

The reason I had to take my stuff out of there is that I applied for the rental of the space, and was approved based on my credit.  While I was out of town for a THREE DAY MINI VACATION, Todd signed the lease.  Sneaky. That left the lease in his name, which was great for me, one less thing to worry about. However,I was also forced to play nice with him until he was out of town and I could get in and out secretly with as much stuff as possible.  Among the things I found was a credit application to a vendor here in town with all my private and personal information on it (Name, DOB, SSN, ETC) filled out completely in his penmanship and clearly HIS handwriting of my signature.  I'd call that ID Theft, Fraud, Forgery, Etc.  Do you know what the Detectives in Des Moines Iowa told me?  It would be MY responsibility as the wronged party to do the investigation. (I thought that is why THEY were the detectives?)  I should hire an accountant and attorney's to do the research and it would be my responsibility to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I didn't authorize him to forge my name. I found a receipt for a credit card purchase for a $500 phone (I don't even have a $500 phone!), where he signed my name.  Again, it is VERY obvious it is in his handwriting.  The police wanted nothing to do with this.  Apparently forgery isn't a crime in Des Moines Iowa either.

For this reason, ladies and gentlemen, protect yourself.  I have the documents I refer to above hidden away in a safe place away from my home. 

Todd told me in the beginning when I met him that he used to own a business, but his business partner cleaned out the bank account in the middle of the night and left the country.  As a result of that, he, Todd Von Stein, was caught holding the bag and all the liabilities for that situation.  Because of that he said he had to file bankruptcy and he owed the state over a hundred thousand dollars in back taxes. I wanted to believe him.  I wanted to believe in the good of human beings.  Many good ones, a few really bad ones.

When I fired him, he started telling his new employees, clients, and vendors whom I'd never even heard of that I had done the same thing to him.  That the reason he was in financial difficulty was because I had done this to him.  I even have a couple of vendors for his new company DesighSmith/Design Shoppe, who figured him out and contacted me because of what he and his associates were saying about me.  They asked me the truth.  I met them and showed them my proof.  A year and a half later, those vendors still have not been paid for the work they did.

Todd will use this same story time and again.  His story for starting his "new company" is that "Pam didn't pay his child support".  Pam is the owner.  Why would SHE be responsible for paying HIS child support? 

I have receipts where he purchased new tires for himself and one of his girlfriends, Laura's, vehicles.  Now, he may have used those vehicles for company business, but they were NOT OWNED by the company.  He used company money to date women all over the state of Iowa.  He used company money for extravagances like taking the employees to an expensive restaurant every Friday afternoon.  He paid for all his window repairs and his vehicle maintenance, and when he got into car accidents his accidents using company money that all should have been used to pay the vendors who did work on the client's homes.  One day he was in my drive way and his son broke his windshield playing baseball.  His expense, right?  I found out my company paid for those expenses later on.

Admittedly, I have some responsibility here.  I was gullible and trusting when I shouldnt have been.  I didn't oversee the finances and the operations daily.  I should have. If I had, I'd have caught things sooner and maybe could have saved several families the pain and financial loss.  We all paid a very high price.  Now I believe it is my responsibility to protect as many of you as possible.

Please, follow your gut.  There are too many other good, respectable contractors, presevation specialists, design specialists available to you.  Check the Home Builders Association of Iowa if you need free referrals.  Always check the BBB for ANY complaints at all - resolved or not.  And, also conduct extensive internet searches and background checks.  Be careful.