Sullivan Brothers sentenced to 14 years for conning women

Sullivan Brothers sentenced to 14 years for conning women

Con Men, John and Dan Sullivan, received a 14 year federal prison sentence.

The Sullivan brothers are notorious con men.

John and Dan Sullivan have scammed numerous people, mainly women, out of their hard earned cash.

Only weeks ago we featured an 11 part series on the notorious Gann Twins, two identical twin brothers, Simon and Jordon Gann who have been conning both women and men worldwide.

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Then I heard about the Sullivan brothers, and my curiosity was again piqued.

The Sullivan brothers; John and Dan Sullivan specialized in ripping off older women.

The older the better.

In their own words, the Sullivan Brothers said this about their perfect victim,

The older the better, the blacker the better.

In order to achieve the desired financial goals, the Sullivan Twins sometimes became romantically involved with their victims.

Unlike the Gann Twins, who seem to effortlessly get out of serving long prison terms, again and again, the Sullivan Twins were sentenced to a substantial period of time in a federal prison.

Although the victims and their families likely think that the 14 year prison term the Sullivan Twins received is not enough, at least they will be off the streets for the next decade.

John Sullivan and his brother Dan Sullivan were described by the judge who recently sentenced them as, “financial vampires preying on old people”.

There are at least 67 victims, who were ripped off by the Sullivan Brothers, their lives altered permanently.

One was even driven to suicide.

The longtime con artists preyed on victims on the South and West sides of Chicago and, collectively, scammed them out of over of one million dollars.

They would convince their targets that expensive repairs to their homes were necessary and would convince the homeowner to hire J&D, or another company under Sullivan’s control to perform those repairs. They would then have the homeowner refinance their homes to pay for the repairs and turn over a substantial portion of the refinancing proceeds directly to J&D.

The Sullivan Brothers were quite brazen in their never-ending search for victims . They mailed “solicitation” flyers out to numerous homes offering discounts to elderly homeowners.

In 2004, the City of Chicago obtained a permanent injunction against New Look Home Services and John Sullivan, prohibiting them from participating in any way, shape or form in the home repair industry in the city.

Even an injunction would not stop the Sullivan brothers from using their numerous home repair businesses, New Look Home Services, Inc.; J & D Home Services, Inc.; A-Z Home Services; and Contract Services to con victims from 2002 to 2006.

6 Important Red Flags and warnings signs that you may be the target of a romantic con

John Sullivan and Daniel Sullivan promised to perform expensive home repairs for the victims and convinced them to take out home equity loans to pay for the renovations. The Sullivan brothers would get paid and take off before the work was completed.

They were convicted in 6 of the cases and the $1.2 that the Sullivan brothers have been ordered to pay will be split amongst all of the 67 victims.

Francis Spinks was a victim.  Her niece, Roxanne Sarno says her aunt, Francis Spinks, was conned into signing over her home to the Sullivan Brothers, while she was on her deathbed. Sarno said that John Sullivan and Daniel Sullivan are “evil, pure evil.”

Sarno also said that after victimizing her aunt, they burned down her home for the insurance money and alleged that they were a “family of crooks”

Victim of con man Joe Sullivan commits suicide

Elizabeth Kelleher, 48, better known as Liz, was victimized by John Sullivan and paid the ultimate price.  Her life.

She had gone through a divorce and, in early 2010, was at a support group for people trying to overcome addition.

Kelleher met a guy at the meeting, Joe Seppi. He told her that he was a Harvard Graduate and a wealthy construction owner.  He seemed nice.

She did not know that Joe Seppi was Joe Sullivan.

They began dating and the con man asked her to marry him.  She eagerly accepted.

In May 2010, Sullivan suggested she give him $50,000 for a down payment on a house for the two of them and Liz agreed, not knowing that he was simply conning her.

A month later, her mother, Lois Stein, agreed to help Sullivan out when he said he needed two short-term loans of $375,000 and $220,000.

Joe Sullivan said he needed the money right away because of some sort of dispute with the federal government. He swore he’d pay her back in a month, when he had access to his accounts.

Kelleher and her mother handed over their life savings, nearly $640,000, before the realization set in that they had been conned.

After they lost their life savings, they were forced to sell their home in 2011.  It was reported that Kelleher and her mother were on food stamps, a position they likely thought they’d never be in,

Lois Stein’s health declined and she was moved to a senior facility.  Elizabeth Kelleher, devastated at the turn of events, took her own life leaving behind her 3 sons.

Even sadder, was that the money was returned to the family but it was too late to undo the damage of the Sullivan Brothers.

Victims of Joe Sullivan, con man

If you peruse some of the local message boards, there are many negative comments about the Sullivan Brothers, particularly Joe Sullivan.

Many claim that he moved from Chicago to Surprise, AZ in an attempt to run from the mounting problems in the state of Illinois.

Message boards are full of warnings from people, both male and female, who were victims.

John Sullivan’s son, who was 14 at the time, shot another 14 year old boy, Juan Vergara, in the head in 2010 at this father’s home in Surprise, AZ.

Vergara died from his injuries. When Police responded to the call, they found guns, narcotics and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in the home.

Some of the cash found was used to make restitution to the Kelleher’s family.

Although the Sullivan Brothers will be in jail for at least the next decade, the damage that Joe Sullivan and Dan Sullivan they did to their victims is irreparable, and forever etched into the minds of the surviving victims, and their families.

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