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Sean Bruns, featured in an article about Old Town Crossing Showroom in 2019. PRESS FILE
Prosecutors from the Suffolk County district attorney’s Financial Investigations and Money Laundering Bureau are building their case against interior designer Sean M. Bruns, 43, of Southampton, who is accused of stealing more than $480,000 from a client. His attorney John Kern says it's a classic client-vendor disagreement and nothing more.
Arrested Thursday, October 22, he was charged with felony counts of grand larceny in the second degree, possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, and falsifying business records in the first degree. His Southampton Village company, Old Town Crossing, is also charged with grand larceny in the second degree.
“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,” District Attorney Timothy Sini said in a release detailing the arrest sent out last week.
“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,” he continued.
According to the district attorney, in July 2017, Mr. Bruns entered into an agreement to provide interior design and decorating services for a Shelter Island woman’s home in Florida. The following year, Mr. Sini said, the client paid Mr. Bruns and his company $593,919 for home furnishings. Dissatisfied with the project’s progress, the client terminated the agreement and asked for delivery of the furniture the decorator supposedly bought, and an accounting of how the money had been spent.
The district attorney’s office found discrepancies between invoices and receipts provided to the client, and copies provided by furniture vendors. They were, Mr. Sini said, “forged and fraudulent invoices and receipts” purported to be from the vendors showing payment had been received.
The client recouped $104,462.19, but she didn’t receive either furniture or a refund for the balance of $489,456.81.
"I deny all charges and any wrongdoing on behalf of my client," Mr. Kern said in a statement Tuesday. "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."
Noting there are two sides to every story, Mr. Kern said, "The release presented by the district attorney’s office presents this as a one-invoice job."
According to Mr. Kern, the job was a one-and-a-half-year, eight-invoice project for a 15,000-square-foot, five-building compound. Old Town Crossing was the second designer given the project after the first bowed out, and the project is now with a third designer, the Remsenburg attorney explained.
"Unlike the district attorney’s office, we will not be trying this case in the press," he continued.
"This is a client-vendor disagreement nothing more nothing less. Mr. Bruns and Old Town Crossing are respected 40-year fixtures of the Southampton Village business, design, and retail community."
Old Town Crossing opened on Main Street in 1978. Mr. Bruns, an interior designer, began working there in 2007 and seven years later, took over the company, moving its warehouse to Mariner Drive. In 2018, he moved the company’s showroom to Hampton Road, where he committed to a 10-year lease.
Mr. Bruns was arraigned in Southampton Village Justice Court on Thursday, October 22, and was released on his own recognizance. He is due back in court on November 10. If convicted of the top count, he faces a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison.
