{"id":102998,"date":"2019-04-26T12:02:11","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T16:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=102998"},"modified":"2019-04-26T11:03:13","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T15:03:13","slug":"attorney-general-james-announces-settlement-with-syracuse-area-auctioneer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=102998","title":{"rendered":"Attorney General James announces settlement with Syracuse-area auctioneer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Attorney General Letitia James<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Additional victims urged to file complaints before July 8, 2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement in a\ncontempt of court case with an auctioneer who previously defrauded consumers\nout of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Syracuse area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timothy W. Conroy was found in contempt of court for\nviolating a 2008 court othat prohibits him from engaging in the auction\nbusiness. The order was obtained after the Attorney General\u2019s Office sued\nConroy and his businesses, TW Conroy and Associates and My Sister the Lister,\nfor engaging in repeated illegal and deceptive acts and practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit was initiated after the Attorney General\nreceived consumer complaints alleging that Conroy failed to pay individuals for\ntheir consigned items that had been sold or did not return unsold consigned\nitems to the original owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBad actors who prey on unsuspecting consumers for their own\npersonal gain will be brought to justice,\u201d said James. \u201cMy office remains\ndiligent and will continue our efforts to prevent New Yorkers from falling\nvictim to the fraudulent actions of auction houses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pursuant to this contempt consent order and judgment, Conroy\nis permanently barred from receiving, administering or in any way controlling\nthe proceeds of any sales of property owned by others. In lieu of posting a\n$500,000 performance bond, which was required by the 2008 order, Conroy must\nhire an independent trustee to receive, administer and control all proceeds\nreceived from auction sales. The trustee will maintain a separate financial\naccount for the proceeds from the auction sales to be deposited and Conroy will\nhave no access to this fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trustee will be responsible for delivering the net\nproceeds directly to the consumers whose property was sold. Additionally,\nwithin 30 days of receiving the sale proceeds, the trustee will remit no less\nthan 20 percent of the retained commissions and sales expenses for each sale to\nthe Attorney General\u2019s Office. This amount will be applied to the outstanding\nrestitution balance of more than $411,000, the total owed to 84 consumers.\nAfter payment to the consigners and the Attorney General\u2019s Office, the trustee\nwill transfer the remaining balance to Conroy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Attorney General\u2019s Office learned that Conroy was\nrecently doing business as Estate Consultants, LLC, and Estate Consultants, 123,\nInc. By engaging in the auction business without posting a $500,000 performance\nbond, Conroy was operating in violation of the 2008 order and judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sentencing for civil contempt will be suspended providing\nthat Conroy complies with all terms of the consent order and judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumers who consigned items with Timothy Conroy or Estate\nConsultants after Jan. 1, 2016, are urged to call 800.771.7755 if they have not\nreceived payment for their consigned items. Complaints must be received by July\n8, 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Judith\nC. Malkin, with the assistance of Law Department Investigator Andrea\nButtenschon. The Syracuse Office is led by Assistant Attorney General in Charge\nEd Thompson. The Syracuse Regional Office is part of the Division of Regional\nOffices, which is led by Deputy Attorney General for Regional Affairs Jill\nFaber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Additional victims urged to file complaints before July 8, 2019 Attorney General Letitia James announced a settlement in a contempt of court case with an auctioneer who previously defrauded consumers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Syracuse area. Timothy W. Conroy was found in contempt of court for violating a 2008 court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-qNg","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Attorney-General-Letitia-James.jpg?fit=2832%2C4256&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/98849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}