Complaint Review: MoMax Builders - Fred Resnick - Northbrook Illinois

Here is a story from the local paper in Highland Park where Fred lives: HIGHLAND PARK NEWS Feb. 3, 2005 Resnick jailed on fraud charges BY IRV LEAVITT STAFF WRITER The world of Highland Park resident and Northbrook business owner Fred Resnick came crashing down around him last week as he was jailed on charges of taking millions of dollars in down payments for home remodeling jobs that were never started or never completed. The legal action followed on the heels of an apparent Jan. 20 suicide attempt Resnick made at a Wisconsin hotel, the business owner's lawyer, Robert D. Kuzas, said in court last week. The judge in the case, noting the claimed suicide attempt, ordered Resnick not to Cook County Jail, but to Cermak Hospital's psychiatric ward. Resnick's business, MoMax Builders of Northbrook, was shut down Friday by a Cook County judge, who granted the temporary restraining order at the request of the Illinois Attorney General's Office. The court will revisit that order Tuesday. The Attorney General's Office sued Resnick Jan. 21. Investigators allege Resnick has bilked at least 31 consumers of $2.1 million. Friday, Resnick, 44, was ordered held on $100,000 cash bond by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Earl B. Hoffenberg on a Skokie complaint. In that case, Resnick is accused of taking $121,000 to build a two-floor addition on a home in northeast Skokie. The work was never started, police charge. Resnick is due for a preliminary hearing Monday in Cook County Second District Criminal Court in Skokie on Skokie's felony charges of home repair fraud and theft by deception. Resnick's bond hearing was delayed Friday morning so he could be given an antidepressant, said Sheriff's deputies. He appeared drawn and unemotional in court after a night in the Skokie lockup. His expression did not change as Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Rosanne Pulia told the court Resnick had taken customers' money "and stripped them of their whole lives." Judge Hoffenberg resisted the pleas of Resnick's lawyer Friday for a lower bond. Kuzas told Hoffenberg that family members would ensure Resnick's return to court. Hoffenberg said he would have ordered a much lower bond if Resnick hadn't fled the state the previous week, after a warrant on charges related to a Hoffman Estates home repair complaint was issued. The contractor was found at a Mount Pleasant, Wis., motel Jan. 20 after a Wisconsin police officer spotted Resnick's BMW convertible in the motel lot, Pulia testified. Kuzas told the judge that Resnick apparently had gone to Wisconsin to kill himself, and afterward had been placed on medication. He also said his client intended to build the Skokie home addition. The judge retorted, "I don't live in a vacuum." He added that he had read of many MoMax cases in newspapers, and seen the sites where jobs had languished on television. "When I see things that were done and not done, it's appalling to me." Despite that statement, the judge sent Resnick to Cermak Hospital's psychiatric ward, saying, "I do not want to read in the paper that something has happened to him in jail." Customer complaints against Resnick first were reported in Pioneer Press Jan. 13, and since then, several other news agencies have joined in high-profile coverage. Publicity Kuzas said Monday that "The publicity in this case is effectively not allowing Mr. Resnick to have a fair trial anywhere in the near future." Resnick, after a Wisconsin hospital stay, waived extradition to Illinois last week, and was arrested by Hoffman Estates Police last Thursday. They charged him with felony forgery and theft by deception, for forging waivers of lien to convince a local couple he had paid bills for their project that actually had not been paid. As soon as Resnick had posted $1,000 to gain his release at the Hoffman Estates Police station on the charges last Thursday, he was arrested by Skokie Police, a spokesman said. Skokie Police investigated a complaint by resident Jonathan Buntain. That homeowner and his wife say they contracted Oct. 11 for a $220,000 two-story addition and remodeling job on their home that was supposed to be done before their first son was born early this month. Jonathan Buntain said Monday that he paid Resnick $121,000 up front, at Resnick's request, to ensure that the job would be completed on time. The boy was born in January, and the job was never started, Buntain said. Now, the family is in debt, and has no nursery for the infant. In exchange for the large down payment, Buntain said he was told last October "We'd be able to save 20 percent off the project, which would be better than investing over four months. "It was a pretty quick way to save 20 grand." Buntain said he first had looked into MoMax in 2003. "We had checked all the references," he said. "People had glowing reviews of MoMax." Buntain said his down payment never yielded delivery of building supplies, as promised. He added Resnick asked in early December for $30,000 more, and promised another discount. Buntain refused. Since last month, dozens of MoMax customers have reported similar stories. One of them, Karyn Okon, told Pioneer Press in early January that she had paid $39,000 for remodeling and an addition, and all she got was siding on her Mount Prospect home and a 4-foot-deep hole in her backyard. Friday, she watched Resnick in court. "I was glad to see the judge holding him accountable with the bond he set," she said. "But it's bittersweet. If he can post the $100,000, he's probably posting it with my money."

MoMax's story was on numerous news sites when the state gov't finally acted. There are numerous other bad contractors still operating. Only when a NUMBER of complaints builds up and people are persistent in getting prosecution for the crooks, will anything happen with regard to state agencies doing their job. Don't assume that because filing a complaint won't help you right here, right now, that there's no point in filing. Maybe he would have been stopped sooner if more had complained sooner, and he'd still be out there ripping people off if there hadn't been many complaints actually filed. Thanks to those who persisted, he has been stopped, and hopefully will be made an example of for other contractors pulling the same scams. You can find a lot of the news stories about this company by searching google.com's news page.

1/24/05- Fred Resnick was caught tonight at a motel in Racine Wisconsin!!!!! Reports said he was in "medical distress" and rat poison was in the room. Thank God he has been found. Now lets hope justice can be served.