Storm Construction aka Mark Allen Construction aka Mark Cummins

Dale –

Victim Location 74464

Total money lost $62,877.46

Type of a scam Home Improvement

In August 2016, we were introduced to Mark Allen Owner of Storm Construction. We were building a new home. We had been given his name as a referral for handyman. Mark introduced himself to us as Mark Allen and said he was the owner of Storm Construction. Upon initially meeting him, he had told us his business was in “the city”, meaning Oklahoma City but was opening an office in Tahlequah, located at 17636 S. Muskogee, Ave, Suite H. Tahlequah OK, 74464. Mark told us that he was a licensed roofing contractor, and was bonded and insured. He was working on getting the contract to us because he said he was trying to be fair to us, and get the wording right. We agreed to let Mark work on our project and they started work immediately.

Mark providing plumbing /electrical services for us by using someone from his Oklahoma City Office, Curt McPherson of CPT Mechanical. Curt was quoting him a bid to do the electric for our home. We had been questioning whether or not our septic drain was set correctly by our previous contractor. Curt investigated the issue and told us that the septic drain was in fact set incorrectly and did not allow enough fall to drain properly. The concrete would have to be busted and the septic drain reset, new lines dug, and new lines outside dug. We were waiting for the quote to come back and Curt immediately started working on it. Mark assured us, this had to be done to fix it, and that we were getting the best deal from Curt. When it was all fixed, Mark presented us with two bills totaling $48,756 on 9/22/2016, which included an invoice of $41,780 that he alleged, was from Curt and his own invoice for $6976.00. Upon making the check out to Storm Construction in the amount of $48,756, he asked us to make the check directly to him because his bank would hold the check for 2 weeks and he had already paid for everything up front, and need to be reimbursed in order to have money to pay his guys to continue to work. When we went to make the check to Mark Allen, he informed us it was actually Mark Cummins. He told us that he went by Mark Allen because his Dad had the same name and was a “wild child” and had gotten in to some trouble and he didn’t want anyone to mistake them.

Mark purchased tile from Lowes for our house telling us the tile was something we had picked out, which it was not. We requested the tile be sent back to Lowes and the correct tile purchased. Mark presented us with an invoice that included charges for the tile ($1380.00) and for wood he claims to have bought for our cabinets ($5535.73). Mark claimed he had purchased the wood from Norman Door & Plywood. The invoice totaled 18,999.05. We met with Mark during this time and he asked us to see if we could get an additional $10,000 from our bank so he and his partner could make some money. I met with them on the evening of November 25th at Mark’s request. Mark wanted to know if we were able to get the money. I told him that we were not able to get an additional $10,000 for his profit. The following week, Mark sent a crew of workers to our house and pulled out all of their equipment. He would not return texts or calls and it was clear he was mad. I went by his office and spoke to an employee in his office. I him that we had paid Mark for tile & wood for cabinets and we wanted our money back and we could part ways amicably. Mark agreed to give us our money back, as soon as he received reimbursement from Lowes for the tile that he alleges he paid up front & money for Norman Door & Plywood for materials for cabinets totaling $6,915.73.

We kept in contact with Mark and he said he was just waiting for Lowes and Norman Door & Plywood to return the money. We were very suspicious at the point. We had discovered the reason he lied to us about his name being “Mark Allen” was because he was a former employee of the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service who had stolen guns for resale, and served a federal sentence. He was on probation. Since we had his full name now (Mark Allen Cummins Jr) we looked in to his background and found his was being sued for fraud in OKC for embezzlement. We went to Lowes and discovered the money had been returned to them already. We also contacted Norman Door & Plywood about their return. We were told they had never done business with him and provided a statement.

After reviewing our records we realized there were several discrepancies, besides charging us for items not received we charged delivery fees when we didn’t even use that company for materials. We realized he had invoiced us for rough plumbing provided by K&H Plumbing from OKC for $ 7,840. This company worked a couple of days and was supposed to return to finish our plumbing but never did. Mark told us the owner had a head injury over the weekend and was in the hospital. We tried to look them up to see if they were legitimate but never could find their business. We realized Mark was ordering supplies under a business name of Energize Electric at 4580 NW 8th St. OKC, OK 73127. We couldn’t locate this business and upon looking up the address returned to someone’s home address. We were able to obtain business cards showing where he went by Mark Cummins in OKC, and then changed his name upon moving to Tahlequah. We then contacted Curt McPherson who did our plumbing and electric about coming back to finish the job he was paid to and he informed us that Mark had never fully paid him, and not only that, but that Mark had forged the invoice for CPT Mechanical, because that was not Curt’s invoice. We also learned that Curt was charging us $20,000. Mark forged the invoice and charged us $41,780. Additionally since Mark never paid Curt in full, Curt would not finish out plumbing and electric and we had to hire someone else to do what we had already paid for. We had to repurchase lights, materials, tiles, and pay for additional labor. Additionally we found out he is not licensed, and he represented himself as a roofing contractor using logos from a legitimate business in Owasso, OK.

Just to summarize, we hired Mark “Allen” of Storm Construction in August 2016 to provide services and labor for our new construction. Mark misrepresented himself and gave us an alias. His real name is Mark Allen Cummins Jr. He lied about being licensed. Altogether we paid Mark Cummins approximately $ 98,119.41. Using his alias and fake construction company; he embezzled money from us costing a loss totaling approximately $62,877.46.

K&H Plumbing- $7840.

Delivery fees from Home Depot- $100

CPT Mechanical- $41,780

Tile from Lowes Tahlequah-$1380.00

Wood for Cabinets-$5535.73

Tax on Lumber Mark charged us for Lumber not purchased: $706.01

Attached are copies of invoices, his business cards showing his intent to hide his real name, a letter from Norman Door & Plywood, and checks written to Mark “Allen” Cummins that were a loss to us. He has scammed others as well who got in contact with us. He presents as a certified roofing contractor. We have copies of checks, invoices, and letters from companies showing they had never done business with him as he had claimed. He moves from place to place scamming people, changing his name and construction company name.

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