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WINK Investigates: For the first time, Beattie Development owner Paul Beattie speaks out during liquidation after allegations

Reporter: Olivia Jean
Published: Updated:

On Tuesday, for the first time, Paul Beattie, owner of Beattie Development, who a lot of people say owes them a lot of money, is speaking out.

Beattie’s on-oath appearance on Zoom follows the raid in August at his construction office in Cape Coral, months of WINK News Investigations, dozens of people coming forward who claim they paid for homes his company never finished and subcontractors saying they were never paid.

We still don’t know where the money went, how much Beattie Development has in assets or how far along the investigation is; however, we did learn more about what could’ve caused the collapse of Beattie Development.

Beattie on Tuesday said he knew things with his company were going sour in late 2023/early 2024, which brings us to where we are now. Beattie is trying to liquidate his company’s assets after records show he’s about $11 million in debt. The most recent payment a homeowner withdrew for him was in July 2024.

Beattie had to answer questions for one hour in his liquidation Zoom meeting Tuesday morning. On Sept. 3rd, he filed for an assignee to take over his company’s assets.

Larry Hyman, his assignee, took over the Zoom and asked Beattie numerous questions. Nobody else was allowed to ask questions.

Hyman asked Beattie, “Who was at the top of the pyramid? Who was ultimately responsible for the overall operations of the company?” Beattie responded with, “Well, ultimately, I would say my CFO and myself.”

Beattie blamed his chief financial officer for the bad finances, as he said he never looked at the books or records.

“I didn’t have control over those financial day-to-day operations,” Beattie said.

Beattie said he earned a salary of $120,000 a year, whereas his CFO earned $300,000 a year. He said he never took bonus payments.

Alan Hamisch, a local attorney not involved with the case, sat through the liquidation Zoom hearing.

“I think that some people do try to put a level of a buffer zone so they can say they don’t know what’s going on. But, in a company where it’s a single member LLC, or one individual is the owner, the sole owner of the company, I think it is, at the end of the day, it really is a copout to say, ‘I don’t know the answer. I had somebody taking care of it for me,'” Hamisch said.

Hamisch added, “I think what we take away from it is more questions than answers. “We don’t know what the assets are.”

He detailed to the court several factors he claims contributed to the downfall of the business.

“It was a combination of the extensive price increases since COVID and then the hangover from Hurricane Ian two years ago, a combination of those price increases and what the hurricane did to the labor market and materials market,” Beattie said. “They were extremely hard to manage.”

“What I see here is somebody who probably got in over his head; something happened, and we don’t know what happened and probably didn’t know how to get out of it,” Hamisch said.

He spoke about the raid of his offices in early August. He said investigators handed him a search warrant.

“They took all of our hard copies, our computers. I still don’t have access to any of my electronic devices whether they were business or personal,” Beattie said.

When asked why his office was raided by Cape Coral Police and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, he answered, “Because there’s an investigation against the business and myself, I believe.”

When Hyman asked Beattie about the government investigation, his attorney, Simon Gaugush, jumped in stating, “I don’t want to interrupt your inquiry, but all that’s being handled by me.” No further questions about the ongoing investigation were asked.

“In these kind of proceedings, you gotta make sure that if there are criminal allegations out there that you’re not admitting to something under oath because it can be used against you in the criminal case,” Hamisch said.

Beattie brought up his warehouse, which he was evicted from for not paying rent.

“I want to put on record Larry [Hyman] is what we talked about, the extra supplies in the warehouse, the extra sliding glass doors, the extra cabinets. There’s a lot of extra material,” Beattie said. He went on to say that he assumes the landlord took all of it and cleaned the space out.

The court reporter said the amount of participants in the Zoom was a record for her. 66 Zoom participants, including homeowners, subcontractors and attorneys both directly involved and not directly involved in the case, sat and watched Beattie’s testimony carefully. Beattie’s multiple attorneys also attended the court hearing.

When asked about the assets Beattie listed on the liquidation documents, he doubled down, saying the homeowners owe him money. He claimed they were his assets because of unpaid liens. The homeowners said they’ve already paid him double or triple.

Some homeowners tell WINK News they didn’t get the answers they needed. So what should they do now?

“If were to recap the meeting, what I would say is make sure you file your proof of claim. Proof of claim is the most important; the most important thing you can do to recover money. And I’m not even saying there is money. It’s very hard to tell if there’s money and who’s going to get paid,” Hamisch said.

Even if your name isn’t mentioned in the liquidation documents, you can still file a proof of claim. They are due Jan. 3.

Beattie also said since the beginning of September, he has been served with several more lawsuits.

Law enforcement still isn’t talking about the investigation.

WINK News did reach out to Beattie’s attorney and did not hear back.

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