Huillier Indicted and Arrested in Scottsdale

by Alan M. Petrillo

The owner of an antiques appraisal business in Scottsdale, Arizona, has been indicted and arrested on fraud and felony theft charges in connection with allegedly defrauding people out of cash and property that police estimate totals $2.5 million.

Robert Huillier, 48, was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant without incident at 3 p.m. Tuesday, January 6, as he sat in his car in an apartment complex parking lot. Huillier had been in hiding and avoiding police during 2008, according to the Scottsdale Police Department arrest report.

Huillier has been charged with three counts of fraud schemes and five counts of felony theft. He was taken to the Maricopa County Jail where he was held on $100,000 bond.

Scottsdale police said its departmental fraud unit had been investigating Huillier for nearly a year for allegedly defrauding approximately 70 victims out of their cash and property. According to police, Huillier used his antiques appraisal business, Gaige & Company, as a guise to deceive his victims as he took their property on consignment and failed to pay them. They also charge that he persuaded victims to invest large sums of money on the ruse that they were making estate investments.

Attempts to reach Huillier for comment were unsuccessful.

Mark Drinkwater, a restaurateur and nightclub owner in Scottsdale, said he first invested about $30,000 with Huillier in 2002. "I did good on the investment, which was a loan," Drinkwater said. "He brought me product as collateral and then paid me interest on my return."

Drinkwater said he then began making investments of $80,000 or more, in which the money would be used to buy antiques, sell them, and then reconcile the finances, taking his investment back to zero.

"Over time I completely trusted him, and at some point I began to leave the money with him and only take the profits out," Drinkwater noted. "Then after a substantial six-figure investment in the summer of 2006 for a big estate buy, he didn't pay off on the checks he gave me. They'd bounce, and the bank wouldn't cash them. It just got worse and worse, and I finally went to the Scottsdale detectives in early summer of 2007."

Mary Beth Williams, a Scottsdale interior designer, said she was introduced to Huillier in 2002 and later invested $200,000 from a life insurance policy with him, signing a document that would allow $75,000 to be used to purchase antiques at a 5% monthly return, and the balance to be held in trust until the check cleared and then repaid to her.

"Each month I received a check for $3750, which was the return on my $75,000, and each month he said he rolled the $125,000 into another estate," Williams said. "He kept making the same claim. In June 2006 he started giving me bad checks; the first was for $45,000, and later another for $141,000. I was never able to cash the checks."

Williams maintained that she never recovered any of the money from the rollovers of antiques purchases.

At one point, Williams said she began investigating Huillier's background and claimed she found evidence of a two-year felony conviction in Fresno, California, fraud allegations in Fresno and Portland, Oregon, and a bankruptcy in Portland. Williams said she turned over all the information she had to Scottsdale police.

Noel Winters of Scottsdale, who promoted Gaige & Company on his Web site (www.caboodle.biz), said he was deceived by Huillier. "I promoted and marketed his company on my Web site but was never a partner in Gaige and Company in any way," Winters said. He said he removed the link promoting Gaige & Company when he heard reports that "the owners had stiffed consignors and investors for millions of dollars."

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