He put the con in construction

By JOHN STANG

The Daily Inter Lake

One man described Brad Franklin as an "outgoing backslapping big beer-drinking teddy bear."

A real party guy. Nice, too. And likable.

In slightly more than two years, he used a debit card to buy $3,572 worth of drinks - often for others - at local taverns, mostly at Whitefish's Great Northern Bar and Grill.

The problem was that the debit card was earmarked solely for building a house.

That bar tab is a drop in the bucket of an impossible-to-calculate sum of allegedly skimmed business money and unpaid bills that the 6-foot-4-inch, 300-plus-pound Franklin, a construction contractor, tallied from 2003 to 2005.

The total in allegedly skimmed money is likely far in excess of the almost $700,000 that has been confirmed.

That money folds into a bigger sum that includes many unpaid bills, lawsuit losses and liens in Flathead County that total more than $3.7 million.

Franklin, 42, allegedly ripped off two homeowners, some area businesses and his own employees during a 2 1/2-year stay in the Flathead Valley, according to court documents and interviews.

In late 2005, he left the Flathead Valley, apparently returning to Colorado after leaving a trail of huge debts and disgruntled people in Montana - plus two arrest warrants issued this month for theft and writing bad checks.

"He's a pretty decent dude, but he screwed a lot of guys," said Ernesto Martinez, who was a carpenter for Franklin.

In the past few months, Franklin has lost three lawsuits in Flathead County - mainly by not contesting them - that require him to pay almost $3.6 million to the plaintiffs. Two of those lawsuits alleged fraud.

A fourth lawsuit recently was filed.

Interviews and documents paint a portrait of a construction contractor who oversold his expertise, padded his work expenses, did not pay his suppliers and subcontractors, spent customers' money for his personal use, and juggled his assets so creditors could not get their money.

Court documents allege that Franklin bought several snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, trucks, a car, a motorcycle, a power boat and a diamond ring with money allocated to his construction work. He also bought a five-acre piece of land near Kila with customers' money, the documents allege.

The same documents say he also tried to conceal his assets. Among those allegations is one that he lied about getting a divorce so he could shift assets to his wife and pretend he did not own them.

Two successful lawsuit plaintiffs - Richard Prati and Gary Soloman, both of rural Flathead County - made complaints to the Flathead County Attorney's Office, seeking criminal charges.

"I hope the district attorney will pursue this to ensure no one else is harmed," Prati said.

Criminal charges filed

On Thursday, the County Attorney's Office charged Franklin with theft for allegedly skimming $24,907 for himself from $70,054 that Solomon gave him from April to June 2005 to pay suppliers and subcontractors.

Franklin's Aug. 2, 2005, paychecks to his workers on the Solomon project bounced, court records said.

If convicted, Franklin could face a maximum prison term of 10 years and a maximum fine of $50,000.

The possibility of charges being filed in the Prati matter is still under review because of that situation's complexity, Flathead County Deputy Attorney Lori Adams said.

Meanwhile on Feb. 8, the county filed a charge of issuing bad checks against Franklin and obtained an arrest warrant on him for allegedly paying $4,663 to nine businesses between July 20 and Nov. 14, 2005, with Glacier Bank checks without enough money in that account.

He has not been arrested.

Franklin came to the Flathead Valley from Littleton, Colo., a suburb of Denver. The Inter Lake called six local and Denver-area phone numbers that Franklin had provided customers and former employees, and all were disconnected.

Franklin currently has an unlisted phone number in Littleton.

The four lawsuits filed against Franklin are:

. Richard and Sharon Prati, from the Big Mountain area, who filed last August, alleging fraud and negligence as Franklin built what was supposed to be an $810,000 house. Franklin had two attorneys withdraw from representing him between August and December. Franklin quit showing up at depositions and hearings - losing the litigation in mid-January because he did not really contest it.

With punitive damages and legal expenses added, the judgment calls for Franklin to pay $3.194 million to the Pratis.

District Court Judge Kitty Curtis wrote that she granted the legal maximum in punitive damages because of "the nature and reprehensibility of the defendant's wrongdoing" and the "apparent intent of the defendant in committing the wrongs."

Richard Prati thinks he won't see a dime in payments from Franklin.

. Solomon sued last September, making the same allegations as the Pratis.

Franklin did not contest that lawsuit. A judge awarded $371,000 to Solomon in January. Solomon declined to comment on the litigation.

. First Interstate Bank's Whitefish branch won a case against Franklin last October, seeking $32,937 that was overdrawn from his checking account. With interest and attorney's fees, the judgment totaled $41,126.

. In January, the Whitefish Credit Union filed a $37,557 lawsuit against Franklin because he did not repay a loan. Meanwhile, Western Building Centers has filed a $36,368 lien against Franklin because of unpaid bills.

Construction delays

Known background on Franklin is skimpy. He was an explosives handler from 1989 to 1993 in Colorado. Information on his jobs between 1993 and 2003 was not available, though it apparently included some carpentry.

In early 2003, he met Prati when he helped on some interior carpentry at Prati's Denver home. Prati, a 40-year-old stockbroker, had fallen in love with Montana and wanted to build a 7,000-square-foot house on Big Mountain.

Although it later proved defective, Franklin's carpentry in the Pratis' basement appeared to be well done in 2003. And Franklin provided good references. So the Pratis hired him to supervise construction of their dream house, which originally was to be completed by April 2004.

The original cost estimates were $60,000 for labor and $750,000 for materials, plus a $30,000 trailer to be Franklin's home while he worked in Montana.

"It was definitely the biggest thing [Franklin] ever tackled," said Martinez, who worked with him in Colorado and Montana.

Cathy Fousek, a disillusioned friend of Franklin, noted he came to Flathead County with two white trucks with "Franklin Construction" stenciled on them and a small work crew from Colorado - impressing people that he knew what he was doing.

"Everyone assumed he built big houses in Colorado," she said.

For two years, Franklin worked on the Pratis' house. Delays kept popping up. Extra expenses kept surfacing. Turnover among the workers was high. Coordination among subcontractors was poor. Near the end, workers' paychecks often bounced.

Eric Robertson, Cathy Fousek's son as well as Franklin's foreman for many months, said Franklin would hire buddies and pay some of them higher-than-typical wages.

"I never saw [Franklin] work. As soon as I took over [as foreman] he was hardly ever there," Robertson said. When Franklin made a rare visit to a work site, he usually did not get out of his truck, Robertson said.

Spending most of his time in Denver during those two years, Prati said he frequently asked for receipts and other accounting records, but Franklin kept putting him off. Sometimes, Franklin would swear and yell at Prati when he pushed for records on how his money was being spent.

Then subcontractors called Prati, complaining that Franklin did not pay them. Consequently, Prati said he paid the subcontractors - after providing Franklin money earlier to make those same payments.

Prati said some workers told him that Franklin had them pad their time sheets so Prati would pay extra labor costs. Although the workers received some extra pay, they had to kick some money back to Franklin, Prati said the workers told him.

The Pratis sold their Denver home and expected to move into their Big Mountain house in May 2005. But a vast amount of the work was not done, even though that was the latest completion deadline. Franklin quit shortly afterward, leaving the Pratis to figure out how to finish their home. He would not provide financial records of his expenses to Prati when he left.

Court records said the Pratis had put $2.537 million into the project - more than three times the original estimate - when Franklin quit.

Leery about his boss's tangled finances, Robertson quit shortly before Franklin did.

The Pratis' plans for early retirement went on hold. Prati declined to say how much extra it will cost to finish the house, but said it would be significant.

Missing at work

In late 2004 and early 2005, Franklin picked up two additional construction projects. These came through Bob Fousek, Cathy's husband and Robertson's stepfather.

The Fouseks had built their own retirement home in the same Big Mountain neighborhood where the Pratis' construction took place. The Fouseks and Franklin met, chatted and then became close friends who frequently saw each other.

"You couldn't help but like the guy," Bob Fousek said.

Bob Fousek was impressed with Franklin's craftsmanship in building the Pratis' wine cellar and with a narrow, rock waterfall he built next to the Fouseks' staircase. However, Fousek quickly pegged Franklin as a poor businessman and recordkeeper.

The Fouseks wanted to help Franklin build a business presence in the Flathead Valley. They were instrumental in connecting Franklin with Solomon.

Solomon hired Franklin to build a $105,000 addition to his home for his 90-year-old father who is in poor health, court records said. Solomon suffered the same problems as the Pratis, including vendors not being paid with the money that Solomon provided Franklin, documents showed. Solomon eventually fired Franklin and hired another contractor to finish the work.

The second project was an informal arrangement for Franklin to supervise building a 1,500-square-foot house on some Meadow Lake land owned by the Fouseks. Fousek would handle the finances and paperwork and Franklin would supervise the actual construction.

"He said: 'All I want to do is put on my tool belt and work with a crew,'" Fousek recalled.

But Franklin rarely showed up at the Meadow Lake work site. "Brad seemed very upset whenever I made him work on the house," Fousek said.

Fousek remembered showing up at the partly built house at 7 a.m. one day, leaving at about 9 a.m. without seeing Franklin, and then spotting Franklin picking up coffee and then delivering it to his girlfriend. Despite having a wife in Colorado, Franklin had one or more local girlfriends, said several people who knew him.

Fousek later spotted Franklin drinking at the Great Northern Bar at 3 p.m. and learned he never showed up at the work site that day.

Later, Franklin asked Fousek to let his girlfriend take over the finances and paperwork for the Meadow Lake project. Fousek refused.

Ultimately, it was Franklin avoiding work that led Fousek to dissolve their informal arrangement in spring 2005. Fousek said: "I think about how close I came to being had."

'Worse and worse'

Fousek and Prati also are friends. After Franklin quit working for Prati, the pair sorted through the Prati project's fragmented and jumbled finances and bank records.

"As we got into it, things got worse and worse," Fousek said.

Prati said: "I hope that anyone engaging in any construction gets references and tracks receipts on a weekly basis. … If I had done that, I'd have saved myself a lot of trouble."

An interview with Prati and a review of court documents show that:

. Franklln bought five snowmobiles, a pickup truck, a Ford Escort, a Humvee, a power boat, a motorcycle, some all-terrain vehicles and a diamond ring for his wife with money that the Pratis provided for construction work. The motorcycle went to a Franklin friend who worked as a mason on the Pratis' home for a short time, Robertson said.

. Franklin spent $390,779 in 246 unauthorized purchases from a checking account set up solely for construction expenses. Some of those checks covered the power boat and snowmobiles. And $5,500 went to Franklin's wife, Angela.

. Franklin spent $295,281 in 801 unauthorized purchases from a debit card set up for the construction project. Those purchases included 67 bar tabs, two liquor store bills, a diamond ring, numerous restaurant meals, $11,842 in construction materials apparently for work on Franklin's home in Colorado, $7,100 to Franklin, $8,100 to his wife, $647 to the Sportsman and Ski Haus and $183 to The Daily Inter Lake.

. Roughly $200,000 could not be adequately accounted for.

. Franklin bought $22,251 worth of tools from Western Building Centers from 2003 to 2005, which Prati did not authorize for the construction work.

. Franklin sold the trailer - worth $30,000 - that Prati bought him to live in. Franklin rented a house and then charged his housemates rent.

. Without the Pratis' permission, Franklin held a hot tub party at the Pratis' home when they were in Denver. Stereo equipment was damaged.

The Pratis' court filing said the unauthorized checking account and debit card purchases combined "for over 1,000 separate times when Franklin made a conscious decision to steal and misappropriate funds that have been entrusted to him."

On Oct. 31, 2005, the Pratis' attorney, Peter Leander, obtained a court order that forbade Franklin from selling or transferring his assets and properties.

In a Nov. 21 deposition, Franklin said he owned one pickup and previously sold the other vehicles he had bought. But Leander had a title check done, which showed Franklin owned several vehicles, including one bought Oct. 17, 2005, court records said.

An affidavit by Michael Anderson, a bartender at the Great Northern Bar, said that Franklin phoned him in November 2005, offering to sell him the five acres near Kila. Anderson turned down the offer.

'It was blatant'

For a long time, Franklin said he and his wife were divorcing. On Sept. 13, 2005, Franklin transferred his share of their Colorado home to Angela Franklin for free, giving her full ownership of the property, supposedly as part of a divorce agreement, court documents said.

On Nov. 21, 2005, Leander filed paperwork that said there is no record of Brad or Angela Franklin filing for divorce in their home county in Colorado.

Franklin's last appearance in the Prati lawsuit was when he gave a deposition on Nov. 21, 2005. He did not show up for a Dec. 8 follow-up deposition, which was also when his second attorney withdrew from the case. He also skipped the Jan. 12, 2006, hearing in which the Pratis' attorney sought an immediate judgment against Franklin.

Judge Curtis then gave the Pratis everything they sought and assessed the maximum in punitive damages against Franklln.

As 2005 unfolded, the Fouseks wanted to give the lovable Franklin the benefit of the doubt.

At first, they thought he was a good guy with poor business sense. Then they thought: He got in over his head with the Prati project and stumbled morally trying to cope.

But going over the dates and dollars in the Prati project's finances convinced Fousek otherwise.

These numbers - later recorded in the Prati lawsuit - spoke to Fousek:

. April 10, 2003 - Prati set up the project's checking account for Franklin's access.

. April 12, 2003 - Franklin wrote a $1,000 check from that account to pay Kalispell Marine for the first installment on a power boat.

. April 29 and May 3, 2003 - Franklin wrote two checks totaling $5,500 to his wife Angela.

. April 30, 2003 - Franklin wrote a $10,915 check to Kalispell Marine. He also wrote four other checks from April 25 to June 14, 2003, to Kalispell Marine, totaling $6,272.

"It was blatant," Fousek said. "Brad started stealing from Richard Prati within 48 hours of [the project's checking account] being set up."

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com