Afraid that fumes from defective drywall are sickening their families and ruining their investments, beleaguered homeowners increasingly are turning to these unregulated businesses, which offer unproven solutions to a problem no one really understands.  Tainted drywall emits gases blamed for corroding pipes and wiring, and for nosebleeds and coughs in homes nationwide. In Florida, the defective wallboard was concentrated in areas caught up in the most recent housing boom, including Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties.  Scientists have yet to pinpoint what causes the gases or identify a foolproof solution to the problem. But a burgeoning, multimillion- dollar industry has emerged anyway, spurred by wild rumors and conjecture about the harm bad drywall can do.

Among the people profiting in Florida amid confusion and mounting tensions are convicted scammers, thieves and uncertified workers who illegally posed as licensed contractors, according to a Palm Beach Post review of county, state and federal records.  Of 47 remediation and inspection companies identified by The Post, 26 were created since January 2009, records show. Only 18 of those companies are run by licensed general, building or residential contractors.  Under Florida statutes, builders who hang drywall must hold state-issued contractor certificates. But people who “remediate” drywall problems fall into a gray area of the law, which doesn’t prohibit unlicensed workers from repairing or tearing out wallboard. As a result, anyone can offer services regardless of training or professional qualifications.

No experience necessary.  Hillman, 49, holds no contractor’s license. His most recent job was running Asian Brides on Cam Inc., a company whose website offers “live personal introductions to beautiful women from all over the world.” He now sells home inspections and drywall removal through Chinese Drywall Specialist Inc., a Cape Coral-based business he formed with his uncle in July 2009.  Hillman recently boasted of inspecting hundreds of homes and said he charges, on average, about $40,000 to remediate a 2,000-square-foot house.  “I’m doing a service for lots of people with Chinese drywall,” Hillman told The Post . “Everyone’s happy, and there have been no complaints about our work.”

Many remediation companies are run by qualified, well-intentioned workers, but the industry’s growth also has left room for crooks and quacks to prosper, state health officials, legislators and consumer groups say. They added that it’s too soon to tell whether remediation techniques rolled out in the past year will work in the long term.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation has investigated 11 drywall remediation companies but pursued cases against none of them, a spokeswoman said. The Florida Attorney General’s Office has received no complaints about remediation or testing companies, but it’s maintaining a list of such businesses in case problems arise.

“It has all the ingredients for a major league rip-off when you have little government involvement, you have uncertain science, you have no laws on the books, and you have desperate homeowners who are willing to try anything to keep their dream home,” said state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who filed an unsuccessful bill this past legislative session that would have required state oversight for remediation companies. “You have snake oil salesmen out there trying to make their pitch along with reputable business people, and it’s up to the consumer to sort out which is which.”

Panic breeds opportunity.  Since Chinese drywall emerged as a problem in 2008, state and federal regulators repeatedly have warned homeowners against hiring people who promise quick fixes.  “These products and alternative methods have been pulled out before to fix the problem of the day,” said the Florida Health Department’s David Krause, a toxicologist who compared some Chinese drywall remedies to bogus solutions for asbestos and Hurricane Katrina’s formaldehyde-ridden trailers. “This is nothing new. It’s the same industry. They’re just changing the letterhead to deal with the problem at hand.”  As people learned of bad drywall, rumors spread quickly. Homes with the problematic wallboard were dubbed “cancer traps” or identified as radioactive. Some blamed the drywall for the deaths of elderly family members.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission still is investigating and has advised homeowners to replace tainted drywall along with wiring, pipes, sprinkler systems and smoke alarms.

‘Specialist’ grew pot.  Amid this backdrop of fear and uncertainty, Arthur “Skip” Hillman got into the remediation business. His career path didn’t follow that of your typical drywall expert.  In June 2004, police caught Hillman, who then worked for a boat rental company, operating a marijuana grow house in Margate, according to a sworn statement for Hillman’s arrest. He ultimately pleaded no contest to felony drug charges, and a judge withheld a formal finding of guilt.  Hillman told The Post he grew marijuana because he was suffering from Stage 4 lymphoma and needed to smoke pot to gain weight. He said each of the 91 plants found growing in the house was for his personal use. “They were very small,” he said.  He said his cancer since has gone into remission.  Hillman went on to create Asian Brides on Cam Inc., which operates overseasmatchmaker.com .  The dating website brought in about $300 a month, according to bankruptcy records Hillman filed in March. Next he set his sights on drywall remediation.

Had he sought to become a licensed Florida contractor, Hillman would have had to demonstrate experience and education, submit to credit and background checks and offer proof of insurance. But remediators need no certification under Florida law. “The buzzword is ‘drywall remediation,’ ” said Paul Del Vecchio, a Boca Raton contractor who sits on the state Construction Industry Licensing Board. “The game is the verbal semantics. ‘Remediation,’ not drywall work.”

Inspector swindled bank.  A lack of regulation also is permitting the spread of Chinese drywall inspectors. With no enforceable standards in place, anyone can claim expertise in the art of divining drywall problems. Drywall inspectors such as James Kreider are developing their own techniques. Kreider’s Coral Springs company, Kross Inspectors, says on its website that it has conducted more than 6,500 inspections statewide. Its services cost from $275 to $600 and more. “Consumers turn to Kross Inspectors as the leader in the industry,” the website says.

Before forming his inspection company, Kreider worked not as a contractor but as a banker. At First Union National in Naples between 2000 and 2002, Kreider siphoned more than $200,000 from loan checks cut by the bank. Investigators said he used the money to pay off a new GMC Yukon sport utility vehicle, among other things.  In 2004 Kreider, 39, pleaded no contest to charges of committing an organized scheme to defraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to 34 months in state prison and 10 years’ probation. He remains under state supervision.  “I’ve never tried to hide that,” Kreider told The Post, adding that no one ever has complained about his company. “I’ve been very proud of fighting fraud in the inspection business,” Kreider said. “I’ve paid my dues to society, and I still do. My integrity is very important to me, especially in today’s situation.”

‘Total anarchy out there’.  Inspectors and remediators rely on word of mouth, Internet advertising, direct mail and door-to-door sales to bring in clients. Homeowner Nick DeSola paid $640,000 for a 3,700-square-foot house west of Boynton Beach and then discovered it was built with Chinese drywall. He spotted an advertisement for Abisso Cleanse on the Internet, hired contractors to rip out the wallboard and then hired the company last year.

Abisso Cleanse workers used a fog machine to spread a chlorine dioxide formula called “Sniper” in DeSola’s house. DeSola didn’t know the company’s president, 35-year-old Jason Roach, had been convicted of theft in 2004 and of receiving stolen property in 1995 in Minnesota. “After I got into trouble, I straightened myself out,” Roach said. “The focus of our company is to do things right.”  When he learned about Roach’s past, DeSola said he still was happy with the company’s work. “People in life get bad breaks sometimes,” DeSola said. “They gave me the option, they didn’t lie about it, and they didn’t push me.”

Others weren’t so lucky. Aronberg, the state senator, said he has heard stories from people whose remediators folded mid-job or stopped answering phone calls.  “It was total anarchy out there,” said Aronberg, who’s running for state attorney general. “There was no government involvement, there were few, if any, rules.”  Consumer watchdogs including the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in Florida and Louisiana have warned that even educated consumers can fall prey to scam artists.

“People certainly deserve a second chance, but some people that perpetrate fraud are quite good and keep going back to it,” said Mitchell Katz, an FTC spokesman. “They keep changing their methods so they don’t get caught.”

Staff researcher Niels Heimeriks contributed to this story.

The original story can be viewed at Chinese Drywall Scammers and Thieves