Fermanagh brothers arrested in U.S. after FBI uncovers $435k fraud

According to a criminal complaint lodged last week, the brothers, who are well known in Fermanagh, could face up to 20 years in prison after they pressurised the homeowner into paying for costly repairs they never made.

The scheme began in January 2024 when the McDonaghs approached the victim at his home in Shoreline, about 10 miles north of Seattle. They posed as home repairmen, claiming they noticed a hole in his roof while working on nearby homes. They offered to repair the roof and remove moss, convincing the homeowner of the urgency of the repairs.

The documents claim the object of the conspiracy was to use false promises and pretences to fraudulently obtain money and property of value from the elderly victim.

Matthew McDonagh.

Matthew McDonagh inspected the roof and returned with a shingle, falsely claiming it was damaged. The homeowner, believing the ruse, agreed to the repairs. The McDonaghs then persuaded him to write cheques for $15,000 (£11,500), $20,000, (£15,400), and $26,000 (£20,000) for various repairs.

Patrick McDonagh directed the victim how to transfer money from his financial accounts to cover the cost of the ostensible repairs. Matthew McDonagh collected money from him and cashed the cheques. In at least one instance, the victim observed the brothers discussing how to convince him to pay them more money.

The brothers further claimed the home had a cracked foundation requiring immediate attention, offering to fix it with a “titanium tie rod system.” Prosecutors revealed that there was no hole in the roof and the foundation was intact. The McDonaghs spent about two weeks in January “working” on the victim’s house. During this time, the victim wrote them daily cheques.

According to the court documents, the brothers did not perform any roofing or foundation work, as they claimed they did. An expert inspected the victim’s house and discovered there was no recent work done on the roof, no evidence of the titanium tie-rod system they said it needed, no crack in the foundation, and no evidence that the trench would help fix any foundation issues. Although the McDonaghs did some concrete work and patched holes, this would “should have cost a few thousand dollars at most”.

Patrick McDonagh on CCTV at one of the banks.

Despite this, they demanded more money, including $20,000 purportedly for taxes.

Unbeknownst to the homeowner, the McDonaghs had a history of defrauding other homeowners and were part of a group of travelling scammers.

Matthew McDonagh cashed each cheque in Everett, Washington. In a later interview, he told an FBI agent that he then delivered the money to his “bosses”, and took a cut. The McDonaghs and their co-conspirators told the victim to wire money to pay for materials, even though they did not use €200,000 worth of supplies on his home. On January 25, 2024, the victim wired €200,000 from his account to a bank account in New York at the McDonagh’s direction.

The bank in Washington captured surveillance of Matthew McDonagh cashing many of the victim’s cheques – including on January 11, 2024.

The victim then protested these payments, telling them he could not afford what they demanded. Patrick McDonagh directed him to transfer money out of his retirement savings account to cover the cost of supposed home repairs. When the victim told them he only had €20,000 left in his bank account, the McDonaghs agreed to accept a cheque for €19,000.

Suspicion arose after the homeowner's bank account was nearly emptied, prompting his family to contact the police. Both brothers were arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in June. They now face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

“This type of fraud on our elderly neighbours is heartbreaking,” said U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. “To pose as someone trying to help them, while all the while the goal is to steal as much as they can from the victim’s hard-earned retirement funds. It is a special kind of cruelty to engage in such conduct.”

According to the court documents, the FBI has linked the McDonaghs to other fraud cases in Spokane, Washington, and Washington County, Oregon.

Patrick McDonagh (Image: Impartial Reporter)

A victim in Illinois paid the McDonaghs about €100,000 to repave his driveway and build a retaining wall. The work was so poorly done, reputable contractors quoted the victim more than €30,000 to repair the work. When the victim contacted police, the McDonaghs fled.

Two separate groups of victims in Washington County, Oregon hired Patrick McDonagh and others to perform foundation and concrete work after the Fermanagh man impersonated a local contractor on a services website. In both instances, he charged significant sums for work poorly done or that he never completed. The total loss to these two groups of Oregon victims exceeded €51,000.

Homeland Security Investigations has identified the McDonaghs as part of a transnational crime ring based in Ireland that engages in contractor fraud in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

“In those cases, they used fake photos of holes in the homeowner’s roof or alleged problems with the house’s foundation or posed as local reputable businesses,” prosecutors said.

The McDonaghs appeared in federal court in Seattle on July 12, where prosecutors filed a motion requesting their detention, citing their flight risk and lack of legal status in the U.S.

As they have no legal status in the county, prosecutors worry they will flee back to Fermanagh. Should they do this, the “only recourse to return them to the Court’s jurisdiction will be to expend significant resources on a lengthy extradition process”.

Neither brother has any ties to the district. They appeared to remain in western Washington only long enough to defraud their first victim. They move around the country “as part of their fraud”, according to the court documents. They were in Illinois in the summer of 2023, Oregon in the Autumn of that year, and Shoreline in the winter. More recently, they attempted their roofing fraud in Montana when they were reported to police for laundering money. Local police notified Customs and Border Protection who tracked the brothers down to a caravan park in Spokane, Washington.

The Customs and Border Protection followed the McDonaghs in a caravan across the mountains to Marsyville, where they checked into a hotel using a fake name.

The government has identified more than €500,000 in losses from five victims and the list of their victims “is growing,” prosecutors wrote. An expert examination of the Shoreline home found no evidence of a $435,000 construction project; any recent work was minimal and cheap.

In addition to this, Homeland Security Investigations identified both defendants as part of the Travelling Conmen Fraud Group. According to the documents, members of this group engage in fraud through paving, roofing, and home improvement scams, defrauding primarily elderly victims by taking money for services which were never provided, or completing the work to a substandard level, often causing unwitting victims larger expenses than having the work done correctly by a licence contractor.

“Even if the McDonaghs remain in the country after their release, which is doubtful, this ongoing conduct shows they pose an economic danger to this community and others.

“For the reasons discussed herein, the United States moves to detain Patrick and Matthew McDonagh pending trial,” said prosecutors.

If convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Patrick and Matthew McDonagh could face up to 20 years in prison.