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UPDATE: District Attorney: Designer stole $480K from Island resident

Update: John D. Kern, the attorney for Sean Bruns, charged with theft by Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini, has released a statement to the Reporter on behalf of his client, Mr. Bruns and Mr. Bruns’ company, Old Town Crossing: “I deny all charges and any wrongdoing on behalf of my client.

“There is also a civil suit pending which states upon information and belief that my client is owed money from this alleged victim for design services rendered that the alleged victim did not pay. The release presented by the District Attorney’s office presents this as a one invoice job. 

“This was a one and half year, 8 invoice project for a 15,000 square ft. 5 building compound. Old Town Crossing was the 2nd designer given the project after the 1st bowed out, and the project is now with a 3rd designer.

 “There are 2 sides to every story.

“Unlike the District Attorney’s Office, we will not be trying this case in the press.

“This is a client/vendor disagreement, nothing more nothing less. Mr. Bruns & Old Town Crossing are respected 40-year fixtures of the Southampton Village business, design, and retail community.  

“My client looks forward to resolving this and putting it behind him as soon as is possible. 

“We have no further comment.”

Below is the original Reporter story:     

A Shelter Island resident was the victim of a theft that cost her close to half a million dollars. That’s according to charges brought by Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini.

The D.A. said that in the summer of 2017, Southampton interior designer Sean M. Bruns, 43, owner of the firm Old Town Crossing (OTC), agreed to provide “interior design and decoration work” to the Shelter Island woman — who is unnamed — for a house she owns in Florida.

The D.A.’s office noted that “pursuant to the agreement, the client would pay Bruns and OTC the price of all home furnishings plus a markup fee of approximately 30%. On July 11, 2018, following receipt of an itemized list of furniture selections, the client paid Bruns and OTC approximately $593,919 to purchase the home furnishings.”

But the following month, the D.A. charges, the client complained about the progress of the project and that she had not received any furnishings. She terminated the agreement, the D.A. said, “and requested delivery of any furniture that had been purchased as well as an accounting and refund of any additional funds.”

Mr. Bruns, it’s alleged, then “gave forged and fraudulent invoices and receipts purported to be from the furniture vendors showing that payment for the furniture had been received.”

After an investigation by the D.A.s office, it’s alleged that copies of invoices from vendors found inconsistencies between those documents and the ones provided to the client by Mr. Bruns.

The Island woman was able to recuperate $104,462 from furniture vendors who had received partial payment from Mr. Bruns and OTC, the D.A. said, “resulting in an outstanding balance of $489,456.81 paid to Bruns and OTC for which the client did not receive furniture or a refund.”

Mr. Bruns faces charges of grand larceny, two counts of possession of a forged instrument and two counts of falsifying business records. His company, Old Town Crossing is also charged with grand larceny, according to the D.A.

“Not only did Mr. Bruns and his company not deliver on services promised to their client, but they took this alleged scheme a step further by providing the client with over a dozen forged documents to make it seem like the work had been done,” D. A. Sini said. “Through this investigation, we were able to uncover their alleged fraudulent actions and the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from this victim. We are asking anyone else who believes he or she has been a victim of this scheme to please contact my office.”