DENVER — The owner of a home remodeling business and his father, who were recently indicted on more than 30 felonies for defrauding customers, took in more than $1.1 million from its customers that were not spent on projects, according to an indictment released by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office on Friday.
Sean Schwalb and Avi Schwalb have already been arrested and had their first court appearance. Three of Sean Schwalb’s employees: Kevin Allbritton, Michael Stein and Blanca Dominguez, have also been indicted. The alleged fraud occurred between July 2021 and December 2024.
The charges include two counts of violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act along with multiple counts of theft between $100,000-$1,000,000, $20,000-$100,000 and $5,000-$20,000.
There are 34 total felony counts. Sean Schwalb is the only one facing all 34 counts.
Allbritton and Stein are listed as project managers, while Dominguez is listed as an office manager in the indictment.
The indictment connects Sean Schwalb’s business, Schwalb Builders, with his father’s company, Avi’s Remodeling, stating that the two “often operated jointly.”
It also states that a financial analysis of bank records “revealed a common pattern where customer checks were deposited into the Schwalb Builders bank account, transferred to the Avi’s Remodeling bank account, and then spent within a matter of days for purposes other than for the specific customer’s project.”
The indictment details how the companies and the defendants contracted with victims, received deposits — in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars — and either abandoned projects after demolition or failed to complete any work. It goes on to detail incidents involving more than a dozen victims.
In multiple cases, the homeowners were left with homes that were uninhabitable and had to move out of their homes.
Read the full indictment here.
Denver7 Investigates has been reporting on Schwalb Builders for nearly a year. The company, Sean Schwalb and Avi Schwalb are named in more than a dozen lawsuits.
A financial analysis conducted by the attorney general’s office states that Schwalb Builders and Avi’s Remodeling took in $1,145,271.13 in funds from customers in total, without spending the money on its projects or returning the money to customers.
"It's like some kind of crazy reality show," one victim, Kevin Collins, previously told Denver7 Investigates. "They took our money and they took other people's money. It's criminal what they've done."
Sean Schwalb is currently in jail on a $1.1 million bond. Avi Schwalb had his bond reduced in court on Monday to $50,000 and has bonded out.
“Fraudsters who steal hard-earned dollars from consumers need to be held accountable. In this case, we are making plain that this type of alleged theft and contractor fraud won’t be tolerated in Colorado. We’ll continue to work hard to get money back to homeowners who were defrauded in this scheme and bring justice to those who violate the law,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said.
