Goleen builder brothers on US fraud charges

TWO Goleen brothers, who have construction and plastering businesses in San Francisco, have been charged with alleged insurance and tax fraud by the local district attorney.

The allegations have been made against Denis (Denny) Cullinane, owner of Cullinane Plastering, and Jeremiah (Jerry) Cullinane, owner of Cullinane Construction, according to a press release from the DA’s office.

According to the release, Cullinane Plastering engaged in ‘a yearslong scheme to defraud employees, the State Compensation Insurance Fund and California Employee Development Department.’

Their company assets have been frozen and the men are ‘at large’, it states.

San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins also announced multiple felony charges against Gemma Maher, office administrator of Cullinane Plastering, for insurance and tax fraud.

Maher and her employers are alleged to have engaged in a yearslong scheme to defraud their victims by concealing approximately $5.8m in unreported payroll to avoid paying insurance premiums and payroll taxes.

‘These inexcusable crimes victimise hard-working employees trying to earn a living and cheated taxpayers out of millions in public resources,’ said district attorney Jenkins. ‘Holding Cullinane accountable for these crimes is critical to ensuring that workers are protected, and the system is not exploited with inflated and unfair costs to insurers, consumers, businesses, and taxpayers. Our office will hold individuals and organisations who lie and engage in fraud accountable.’

The alleged fraud was discovered after a Cullinane Plastering employee was seriously injured while working on a job site in  2019. Instead of informing the injured worker that he was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, Denis and Jerry Cullinane, and Maher, allegedly concealed the employee’s existence and injury from their workers’ compensation insurance carrier, State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF), for almost a year.

When Maher finally disclosed the injury to SCIF in March 2020, she made multiple alleged misrepresentations about the worker’s employment history and injury to further the fraud.

The resulting investigation revealed that Denny and Jerry Cullinane, and Maher, used Jerry Cullinane’s Cullinane Construction company to conceal the injured worker’s wages from SCIF and the Employment Development Department (EDD), in violation of California law. In addition, the investigation claims that Denny and Jerry Cullinane, and Maher, submitted allegedly fraudulent employee payroll information to SCIF from 2018 through 2020 and to EDD from 2017 through 2020. These fraudulent reports artificially lowered their workers’ compensation insurance premiums and tax contributions—both of which are determined in part by employee payroll. This resulted in an estimated $270,000 loss to SCIF in unpaid premiums and an estimated loss to EDD of over $300,000 in unpaid payroll taxes (and over $1.5m in unpaid taxes and penalties).

The case was developed through a multi-agency operation.

The Southern Star contacted Denny Cullinane for a comment and he replied: ‘No comment.’

Meanwhile, Jerry Cullinane is listed as a director of Mizen Holiday Rentals, with an address in Dunmanway, which last week announced its intention to apply for a publican’s licence for The Fastnet Bar in  Goleen.