Two men are accused of using their Manahawkin-based business to misappropriate more than $2 million in money meant for Superstorm Sandy repairs in Ocean and Atlantic counties.
Jonathan Price, 41, and Scott Cowan, 57, are both charged with second-degree failure to make required disposition of property received.
Price, who lives in Manahawin, and Cowan, who lives in Demarest, Bergen County, formed the now-defunct Price Home Group LLC in February of 2013.
From May 2013 to September 2015, the company entered into contracts with 31 homeowners and a subcontractor in multiple towns in Ocean and Atlantic counties, an investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Economic Crimes Unit found.
But despite receiving more than $2 million from these customers, the men did little to no work, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said the investigation found.
Police from Stafford Township, Little Egg Harbor, Toms River and Long Beach Township assisted in the investigation, along with the Ocean County Department of Consumer Affairs and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs.
In 2016, then-Attorney General Christopher Porrino and the Division of Consumer Affairs filed a $1.1 million suit against the men and their company citing 17 consumer complaints at that time.
