Carpet Cleaner Pleads Guilty to Ten Criminal Counts

The owner of a carpet cleaning company that bullied customers, many of them elderly, into paying multiple times the advertised price was found guilty of fraud Tuesday after an investigation launched by the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office.

Sharon “Sean” Gilboa, the owner of a Los Angeles-based carpet cleaning company, pled guilty to four counts of grand theft and six counts of false advertising stemming from his company’s “widespread fraud operation” in Southern California, the City Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.

The City Attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit began investigating the company after an 85-year-old Santa Monica resident complained she had paid $560 to clean the carpet in her 570-square-foot apartment, or more than 1,000 percent more than the advertised price of $49.95.

The company -- which bargained down from an initial $2,000 estimate and intimidated the elderly woman into accepting the final offer -- left the carpet wet and did not return her calls.

Another customer – this one an 89-year-old Los Angeles woman who lives alone – responded to the same ad and was coerced into paying the company $1,600, according to the complaint filed by the City.

“This is a shameful scam,” said Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky. “The promise of carpet cleaning is just a ruse to get these bullies into people’s homes.

“We caution everyone to use carpet cleaners only after verifying that the company is legitimate, with a real location, a local business license, and a good rating with the Better Business Bureau.”

Formerly known as Clean Dry USA, Gilboa’s company later changed names to Target Carpet Care, Clean N’ Dry Carpet and, more recently, SoCal Dry-Tech.

The company ran glossy color ads in the Clipper Magazine, Money Mailer, and other prominent advertising circulars, Radinsky said.

“The ads offered to clean three rooms of carpet for $49.95, using special “dry” cleaning technology,” he said. “However, when customers requested service, a very different scenario took place”

According to Radinsky, the company would send an operative to the customer’s home who would then use “bullying, intimidation, and false statements to coerce the customer into paying many times the advertised price.

“Often the operative began ‘cleaning’ before the customer agreed to any work, or to a price,” Radinsky said.

The operatives would then set the price “based on the perceived vulnerability of the customer,” Radinsky said. Elderly customers were charged more than other customers.

“The ‘service’ provided was usually worthless,” he said. “Most customers’ carpeting was left wet and in worse condition than before.”

The operation was widespread, covering most of Southern California, with ads appearing in coupon circulars distributed as far apart as Ventura County, the Inland Empire, Orange County, and all parts of Los Angeles County.

Under the agreement reached with the Santa Monica City Attorney’s office, Gilboa was sentenced to three years’ probation.

He must refund the full amount to all customers, a sum that totals more than $20,000, and perform 360 hours of hard labor community service.


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