Binsack in prison for bad checks
Mr. Binsack, 37, previously convicted of bad checks and fraud in New York state and in Monroe County, was charged Wednesday with two counts of bad checks, signaling what may be the end of the controversial, high-profile building company. A June 24 story in The Times-Tribune detailed a pattern of deception and unpaid debt by Mr. Binsackâs company. The investigation revealed suppliers, contractors and employees declaring unpaid bills or bad checks, as well as a company memo admitting inability to pay bills or finish projects on time.
Binsack in prison for bad checks
BY DAVID FALCHEK
STAFF WRITER
07/19/2007
SOUTH ABINGTON TWP. â Scott Binsack knows the drill.
Once Magisterial District Judge James Gibbons set bail at $10,000 and state parole officials moved in with handcuffs, the head of Mansions & Estates International homebuilders removed his watch and gold bracelet.
He handed his fluorescent-orange Nautica key chain to an employee and asked him to fetch his freezer bag of prescription medication from his company vehicle.
He hugged his fiancée and executive assistant and whispered tasks into her ear, including, âI need you to be strong,â âCall your father,â and âGive me $200.â He had proposed to her just three weeks earlier on his WILK radio talk show, âBuilding and Remodeling in the Millennium.â
Mr. Binsack, 37, previously convicted of bad checks and fraud in New York state and in Monroe County, was charged Wednesday with two counts of bad checks, signaling what may be the end of the controversial, high-profile building company.
A June 24 story in The Times-Tribune detailed a pattern of deception and unpaid debt by Mr. Binsackâs company. The investigation revealed suppliers, contractors and employees declaring unpaid bills or bad checks, as well as a company memo admitting inability to pay bills or finish projects on time.
As a handcuffed Mr. Binsack was led into the bright afternoon sun Wednesday, plodding because of a knee injury from a recent scuffle with employees, some jilted vendors and aggrieved former employees snapped pictures of Mr. Binsack with their cell phones.
One asked if it would be appropriate to applaud.
Mansions & Estates employees huddled, contemplating the next move for them and the splashy company that arrived with great fanfare in 2005, fueled by the charismatic and ambitious Mr. Binsack.
Now held in Lackawanna County Prison, Mr. Binsack faces a detainer from the state Board of Probation and Parole and will remain in prison until a board hearing.
For the bad check charges, Mr. Binsack faces up to five years in prison if found guilty for issuing a $1,403.77 bad check to Jack Williams Tire and Auto Center and a maximum of two years for passing a $830 check to one-time employee Garrett Stever, said Assistant District Attorney Corey J. Kolcharno.
Arguing for $20,000 bail before Judge Gibbons, Assistant District Attorney Maryann Grippo explained how Mansions & Estates structured its business on bad checks. Although only two charges were filed, she said the district attorney has had scores of complaints.
âHe uses bad checks as a form of internal credit,â Ms. Grippo said. âHe promises to make good on them, lets them go for weeks, then when someone is ready to squeeze him, he pays. Mr. Binsack is flouting the system and eventually he needs to comply with the law.â
To the end, Mr. Binsack made excuses to the court.
He blamed the checks on âinternal company problems,â yet boasted that his business has several hundred-thousand dollars in multiple accounts. He only wants to build homes and pay the bills, he said.
But sometimes Mr. Binsack contradicted himself. He told the judge he was never notified that the checks to Jack Williams and Mr. Stever bounced. Then later he told Judge Gibbons he had tried to make good on the bad checks several times but that the payees refused.
Mr. Binsack is no stranger to hearings, or even jail.
In the 1990s, Mr. Binsack was doing business in Sullivan County, N.Y., under the name East Coast Building and Development, until bad checks caught up with him in 1998. He was convicted of grand larceny for paying for legal services and building supplies with bad checks and was sentenced to one to three years in state prison.
Just across the border in Monroe County, he was later accused of taking money from several customers and not completing their homes. In 2001 he pleaded guilty in Monroe County Court to fraud, served time in state prison and was ordered to pay $100,000 restitution to his victims.
Upon his release, he founded Mansions & Estates International LLC in Clarks Summit, complete with a lush marketing plan that featured an image of a castle on hill. On parole until January 2008, he has fought the Monroe County Courtâs order that he pay restitution even as he boasted of his success in Lackawanna County.
But old habits die hard for some.
It became painfully clear to the growing ranks of clients with unfinished homes, vendors and subcontractors with balances due, and workers with bounced paychecks that Mr. Binsack had built Mansions & Estates on sand.
Now Mr. Binsack finds himself flanked by criminal and civil proceedings. He is pinioned with unresolved legal issues in Monroe County, new charges in Lackawanna County and a violation of his parole. Civilly, he faces a number of lawsuits from lenders, vendors and creditors who say they are unpaid.
Mr. Stever may never get his Mansion & Estates paycheck, but he received a different kind of remuneration as he watched Mr. Binsack led away.
âI watched him do this to employees and shops for months and months,â Mr. Stever said. âToday, he finally got justice for what he did around here for four years.â
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