Fraud charge against shutter company owner dropped

Man pleads guilty to misdemeanor

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The State Attorney's Office has dropped a fraud charge against the owner of a hurricane shutter company who was accused of swindling people out of $730,000 in deposits. 

Robert Hoffman, the owner of Rolladen Shutters off Interstate 95 and Hallandale Beach Boulevard, was arrested in July on charges of organized scheme to defraud and unlicensed contracting. 

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Prosecutors said Hoffman collected $730,000 in deposits from about 250 customers and never delivered the shutters. They also said Rolladen Shutters was installing shutters without a license to do so. 

Hoffman has been cleared of the more serious charge of organized scheme to defraud. 

In a statement to Local 10 on Tuesday, Ron Ishoy, a spokesman for the Broward state attorney, said, "After reviewing financial records of the defendant's business, prosecutors determined that the felony charge of organized fraud originally brought against Mr. Hoffman was not supported by the evidence, but the misdemeanor charge of unlicensed contracting is." 

In a deal with the state, Hoffman pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of installing shutters without a license and agreed to pay back the entire $730,000 to customers, which the attorney general's office said Tuesday he has done. 

Hoffman will serve one year of probation and has agreed not to market or sell the installation of shutters for at least a year.