It wasn’t an April Fool’s prank when the police showed up, though one Florida man may have wished it was. Jeremy Franklyn Demers, owner of Gulf View Windows and Doors was arrested on Tuesday, April 1, by the Bradenton Police Department.
According to probable cause affidavits, Demers is being charged with “misappropriation of funds” as well as “organized fraud (scheme to defraud) in excess of $50k,” the latter being listed on the arrest warrant as a first-degree felony.
The charges stem from incidents in 2023.
Jeremy Demers took over the business, Gulf View Windows and Doors (GVWD), after his brother’s cancer diagnosis early that year. According to the Better Business Bureau, GVWD was a Bradenton, Florida-based door and window dealer that was founded in 2015. According to the testimony of detective Michael Carpenter, of the Bradenton Police Department, after Jeremy Demers took charge of the company, “orders for building materials began to not get filled.” Despite this, contractors Buky Construction and Eason Construction, “gave Demers the benefit of the doubt,” continuing to place orders, as they had been “longtime customers and understood he was going through hard times.” By October 2023, Buky Construction had placed orders totaling more than $100,000 and had received nothing in return. Eason Construction had put 50% down on products, more than $675,000, and also received nothing in return. Meanwhile, both companies—Buky and Eason—had liens placed on their properties by E.S. Construction, the manufacturer of the doors and windows they ordered but never received. “Jeremy Demers had been placing orders with the manufacturer but had paid them nothing,” the complaint for arrest warrant says.
Detective Carpenter, who provided the narrative in the complaint for arrest warrant, wrote that both Buky Construction and Eason Construction had to then pay additional money to release the liens levied by E.S. Construction. “Based on the bank of first deposit for checks written to GVWD by Eason and Buky Construction,” Detective Carpenter had financial subpoenas issued to Bank OZK, from which he learned that Jeremy Demers had five accounts: two for GVWD, two for other LLC companies, and a personal account. Both the other LLC companies are “listed in the Florida Department of State” and Jeremy Demers is listed as manager of each.
According to Detective Carpenter’s report, all three of the LLCs – GVWD and the two others listed as owned by Jeremy Demers – had the same business address, and four of the five accounts list Jeremy Demers as the only person listed on the signature accounts. One account for GVWD has his late brother, Jordan Demers, listed as well.
Researching further, Detective Carpenter discovered “there were large deposits being collected into the account for GVWD, then large transfers into Jeremy Demers’ personal account. There were also numerous payments into American Express, SoFi Financial, Bank of America, 5/3 Bank and Frankcrum, a payroll company out of Clearwater, Florida.” Outlining several payments from one bank account into “three different American Express accounts,” Detective Carpenter noted that “this trend continued through the entirety of the Bank OZK accounts.”
In his conclusion for the complaint for arrest warrant, Detective Carpenter alleges that “Jeremy Demers continuously moved finances between numerous different accounts through multiple different financial institutions during his ongoing course of action in an attempt to conceal the nature of his monetary gain, which was used to travel, gamble and provide living expenses over a prolonged period of time. Jeremy Demers’ actions were done during and after collecting money from Buky and Eason Construction and failing to provide any product or reimbursement.”
According to Carpenter, “throughout a prolonged time, Jeremy Demers continued to collect money and sign contracts with Buky and Eason Construction, and never provided any product … This systemic and ongoing course of action deprived both Buky and Eason Construction of money or the construction materials needed to complete their projects. Jeremy Demers obtained a total of $792,382.94 between the two construction companies.”
In additional information provided in the complaint for arrest warrant, Detective Carpenter wrote that he had “reviewed the Bank OZK statements and determined [that] a total of $543,682.60 was transferred from accounts held by GVWD into Frankcrum payroll in a seven-month period. Multiple different accounts showed Jeremy Demers collected money from the payroll company. It can be summarized that payments into payroll were made from one company and periodic payments were collected from other accounts in an attempt to hide the origins of where the money came from.”
A preliminary court date has been set for May 16, 2025.