Todd Cimmino From Hawk Power Allegedly Arrested For Fraud
 

Hey guys. I received an e-mail yesterday that was allegedly from Todd's ex-secretary stating that Todd had been arrested on fraud charges. I was skeptical of the e-mail, but after reading it and the others that followed, I am pretty sure that they are really from this ex-employee of Hawk Power. Anyhow, I'll post our correspondence here and you guys can judge it's validity for yourselves.

Here is the original e-mail that I received.

My name is Deneen Mears and I was employed at Hawk Power from 9-02 until April 23rd, 2003. Todd was arrested last night at 10:00 and spent the night in jail, charged with fraud. I have been working with the investigator from the Sheriff's department since I left and they have finally nailed him on a case that doesn't involve me at all. I was there the day you came to Blountstown and witnessed you signing the contract. You were one of the last people I ever dealt with. My daughter who was 20 months old at the time had surgery on April 21st, and when I came back on the 23rd, a vendor called me and told me that Todd had blamed me for nearly $45k in bad checks, none of which I had written. I resigned that day and told him never to contact me. I have never known anyone like Mr. Cimmino, thank God. The things I saw him do in the last few weeks are hard to believe unless you were a witness to them. He has hurt so many people. I had done a lot of research on the 45 apache, I was the one who mostly dealt with Shane, who you actually bought the boat from. I knew you were getting a fine boat with tremendous potential, so I did not warn you.
my only regret is that I did not tell you to take the boat with you when you came originally. I was dismayed when you left it. The only thing I can tell you is that Todd stripped the boat of all accessories when it came into the shop. It was his practice to steal everything that wasn't permanently attached and sell the stuff on ebay. You could maybe contact Shane (** last name removed by Hot Duck to protect this individual's privacy **) and find out what all was on the boat when it left verses what you received maybe they could find some charges in that. I want to help anyone that I can. I have been posting on offshore only under chick racer and longgone since I left. My husband and I have called many people trying to stop him. Todd tried to ruin my name in the town where I have lived for 38 years, and because he comes across as the big shot to the locals, many believed him for a while. I hope when the papers come out next week a lot of eyes will be opened.

I am sorry for running on, but I hope you will post the info about his arrest. I am not a high enough member to email people privately. I will respond to any posts and answer any questions I can without jeopardizing my testimony to the CCSO.

I hope you enjoy the boat!

Deneen (** Last name removed by Hot Duck to protect individual's privacy **)

My reply to her.



Deneen:

This is actually good news to hear. We were skeptical about leaving the boat there when we did because of what the inside of the shop looked like, but we decided to give Todd the benefit of the doubt. Besides, I don't know how long Todd has had the company or the name, but the name Hawk Power has been around a long time. Either way, I must say that Todd is a good con man. I was hesitant about dealing with him and am usually very picky when it comes to the boats, but Todd sold me and then screwed me.
We started to get suspicious when he would not answer any calls or e-mails. After this went on for a while, we started to figure out Todd's game and decided to come and get the boat, finished or not. Needless to say, because you already know, the boat was in horrible shape. The engines that he "rebuilt"...a complete joke! Man am I glad we got the boat when we did. God knows what it would have looked like if it stayed there any longer! Who knows what else he would have done?
Todd had already taken the good parts out of our engines and rebuilt them with crap. Our only problem is that we could not prove it because we did not have proof of what was there before Todd worked on them. We tore the engines down after we moved the boat from Hawk Power to Martin Marine because I did not trust Todd. Lucky we did because the parts in those engines were a joke and probably would not have lasted through the break in period. And the transmissions he put on there, even worse. They were not even new like we were told, just painted to look new!
Anyhow, when we got the boat from Hawk Power we moved it to Martin Offshore in Ft. Lauderdale. Tres Martin and his crew have done a fantastic job on the boat. To start, we completely rebuilt the engines from the ground up. We sold or traded what we could of Todd's parts and the rest went in the garbage. Now the engines are built correctly with everything, including every nut and bolt, brand new. We have done a lot of work on the electrical system and rewired most of the boat. We replaced everything that didn't work or was in bad shape with new pieces. Basically, we gutted the boat's electrical and mechanical items and started from scratch.
The boat is still at Martin Offshore. We should have this winter's project list wrapped up in another two weeks. After this summer and if we can afford to do it, we plan to paint the boat and take care of the cosmetic items. Then it will be back to brand new! It has been a long road that started out with a slap in the face from Todd, but the boat is coming around. When all is said and done it is going to be great!
Thank you so much for sending me that e-mail. It makes me feel good to hear that Todd is finally getting what he deserves. The day that we were there to pick up the boat, we got to see Todd's true colors. He came out in the shop while we were putting the boat together for transport and said that he had just fired you. That was piss poor on Todd's part. To top it off, he never really helped us get the boat ready to go. The guys in the shop helped us bolt the engines in and collect all of our stuff between their turns getting yelled at and degraded by Todd. That place was a fiasco and I am glad that I will never have to go there again! I am sure that you agree.
Well, here is hoping that Todd gets what he deserves. I wish this not only for personal satisfaction, but also so that he will not get the chance to screw anybody else. Again, thank you for your letter! It makes me feel good. Like they say, what goes around comes around.
One question. Do you want me to post your letter on OSO for everybody to read? If so, I have to do it today (Friday) because I will be out of town for the next 2 weeks. If we post it, you will have to answer the questions and comments because I will not have access to a computer while I am away. Please let me know. I am sure that the rest of the boating world would like to know that Todd finally got busted. He has screwed quite a few people on OSO. Thanks again and take care.

Her reply back to me.


I hope I can be of help, to anyone. First and foremost, it is important to me that people know that I was not fired. I walked out when he blamed me for the bad checks and the fact that the bills weren't paid. It doesn't matter so much for the people I don't know, but that's what he told everyone who would listen in this town where I have lived all my life. He told the people that we had an affair and that I was the girl in the offshoreonly Hawk Power banner ads, both were a lie. What finally made me get up and leave was the fact that he used me as his scape goat when I was out for my 18 month old daughter to have eye surgery. Jim Parker, who was the shop foreman, and I were helping all we could before I left.

As far as when he started Hawk Power, I filed the incorporation papers myself the first week of Sept. 2002. The best I can tell, he did not buy the name, but coat-tailed it like he tried to do with Apache. I filed both corporations the first week I worked for him. So that means that all those dealings before then were not protected by the corporation. If you look at the corporation filings under myflorida.com, you can see the date and that I am the "registering agent" whatever that means. I am still waiting for someone to file something against me, especially since my husband and I got our personal attorney to help Todd out in another criminal case in June of 2002, so now he cannot represent me in anything involving Todd.
what a mess.

As far as posting the letters, it is okay with me. I will help anyone I can so long as it doesn't jeopardize me testifying against him in the criminal cases. There are many on the thread that I know a lot about, but most of the hard stuff started in January when he started the engine scam. I almost died when the article came out in Powerboat Magazine about the HP600 and the HP 750. NONE had ever been built by Todd. He had a man named Mike Ward that he would use for referrals to say that he had an engine from Todd and it was great, Blah, blah. I don't care if you post both my first letter and my reply.

Best of luck with the boat, and you can always contact Shane (** last name removed by Hot Duck to protect individual's privacy **) and ask him for details on the engines prior to Todd taking possession. He is one who did get his money, I wired it myself the day you left. Linn (**last name removed by Hot Duck to protect the individual's privacy **) knows how to get up with him, because he flew south and Todd took him on a $5000. boat ride!!

Thank you,

Deneen

OK. There it is. I am hoping that Deneen will answer questions because I am leaving for the airport in a few minutes and will not be on the board again until we get back in town on the 27th. Again, take this for what it is worth, but I don't have any reason to believe that these e-mails are not really from his ex-secretary.

Have fun and be safe. See you all in a couple of weeks.

Hot Duck

hey i'm glad to see taht cimmino finally got busted.

if you need me to testify or give a statement i was there on the $5000 boat ride with linn. And i heard all Todd's BS. He prommised linn cheap rebiulds and "fresh trannies" he even offered me a $2500 "full rebiuld" on the engine for my scarab. And how he was building anew race baot boat out of teh apache molds.

The best part about the 45 apache "ride" was that it wasn;t even close to ready to run. It was specifically requested that be on the trailer out of the water so it codul be inspected by linn, myself and his surveyor. Then assumign that went well it was to be put ine th water and sea trialed. We arrived and it was sitting at a dock in teh water, with a dead impellar. We waited around for 6 hours for cimmino and shane to fix it. I recall todd specofically saying that he would return the deposit if the deal didn;t go through.

hope they hangem by the nutsack:D :D

Ive seen 2 of his motors that he charged the customer 70k for and took over a year, there is about 5k of new parts in each motor, justice will be served.

Yup
 

I spoke with the arresting officer, so it is true. It looks like Todd is going down big time, and loosing everything in the process.

I came upon Todd by way of this web site and the advertisements and write ups in the rags. His Hawk HP600 package looked like the ticket. At $18K each the price was right.

I read every thread Todd had posted in. I pm'ed several well-regarded OSO members in an attempt to learn any additional details. When I placed the order with Todd for two engines, I saw no real issues. There were those here who had an axe to grind with Todd, but everyone has an axe to grind with someone here, so I went with what I had.

By the time it started to fall apart for Todd here on OSO I had already sent a substantial amount to him. Strangely though, Todd's actions toward me were very different from how he was portrayed here. I spoke with him often at his shop. If I was told he was out, I rang him on his cell phone and he answered.

As time progressed, I sensed he was having trouble getting my engines finished. Eventually, we set a date. Todd picked up the trailer I had purchased in Florida and drove to the Pulse-Drive plant to pick up my drives. Then he went back to his shop and loaded the engines on the trailer and met me half way between Illinois and Florida, all at no additional cost.

When I got home and opened up the crates my heart sank. The engines were incomplete and the paint was peeling off the blocks. I loaded the engines in the back of the truck and headed to Blountstown. When I got to his shop everything became clear. I spent a week there pushing to get the engines as complete as possible, loaded them up and headed for home. My remaining concern was that Todd would not send me the new transmissions I had already paid him for. It was obvious he was about to go under. A month later, Todd did ship me the new transmissions.

I knew I needed to have the motors dynoed and checked out. I had a local racing shop open the motors up. It could have been a lot worse than it was. The blocks were new (paint doesn't stick to machine oil). The cranks, pistons, cams, and ASM EFI's were new. The ignition and headers were new. Water pumps, brackets, pulleys were used/repainted. Water pump impellers were new.

It was as though Todd tried, with me anyway, to be honest. In the end, the Miami Shuffle ethic, the only one he knew, prevailed. His agreement to pay my machine shop bills will obviously never happen. In the end, I was one of the luckier ones, and I feel for those who lost more than I did. I only wish someone here had alerted me before I went down the path.

Yes, Todd will get what he deserves. His daughter, however, deserves better. :(

And now the good news.
 

These babys are built right and ready to rumble:
:D