Elmhurst Scammer With Long History Sentenced Again

ELMHURST, IL — An Elmhurst man was sentenced Monday in DuPage County for defrauding customers out of thousands of dollars by failing to finish agreed-upon home repair projects, the attorney general announced.

Edmund Kavanaugh, 53, pleaded guilty to charges of home repair fraud and theft in DuPage County Circuit Court, officials said in a news release. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Last month, he admitted to a similar charge in Will County, drawing him a seven-year sentence.

"Edmund Kavanaugh has a long history of scamming and defrauding the residents of DuPage and Cook counties. When one scam was stopped, he simply developed new ways to steal thousands of dollars from his victims,"Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in the release.

Kavanaugh owns and operates Goliath Construction, a home repair business.

The Attorney General's Office charged Kavanaugh in February 2021. It alleged he engaged in various schemes that involved him being hired for home repair jobs and collecting payment, but failing to do the work.

Kavanaugh also was accused of using alias names for himself and his business to procure home repair projects after details of his past scams went public.

Over the years, the Attorney General's Office's Consumer Fraud Bureau has received numerous complaints about Kavanaugh.

In 2006, the bureau entered a civil consent decree that stopped Kavanaugh from various home repair conduct, according to the news release.

However, in response to still more complaints, the office indicted Kavanaugh in August 2018 for home repair and theft. He is set to serve three years in prison for those crimes, which will run at the same time as the seven-year sentence.

In January, Raoul's office filed home repair and theft charges against Kavanaugh in Cook County.

In 2020, Patch documented how Kavanaugh collected $10,000 for home repair work at a Hinsdale couple's house, but completed little of the project.

That same year, Patch found many examples of a Facebook user operating under the name "Jessica Munoz" answering inquiries on suburban "Moms" Facebook pages for home repair services. The user recommended a number of businesses with the same phone number, which is Kavanaugh's. The business names included Edward Paint Pros, Deck Pros, Tile Guys, Kitchen Guy and Arana Construction.

In interviews with Patch in 2020, Kavanaugh said the Hinsdale couple's account of their dealings with him was full of lies, at one point calling the woman a slur typically used against women. He said he stopped doing agreed-upon work after the man emailed him that he was not allowed on their property. Kavanaugh promised to send that document to Patch, but did not.