AG Shapiro sued a Chester County man for running a fraudulent playground equipment company

Even after a Chester County man was charged with embezzling $1.8 million from several suburban homeowners associations, he was running another scam, state prosecutors said Thursday.

William Huyler III, 43, defrauded dozens of people in 13 states who bought swing sets and sliding boards from his online store, Huntsman Farms, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

“Parents and grandparents spent thousands of dollars on equipment for the children in their lives to enjoy outdoor fun and wound up with no equipment, no explanation, and no refund,” Shapiro said in a statement. “Conducting business like this is unacceptable and illegal and I’ll take action every time to ensure Pennsylvanians get their money back.”

Shapiro has filed a civil lawsuit against Huyler in a bid to reclaim that money.

Huyler, of West Chester, is serving a three-to-10-year sentence at State Correctional Institution at Waymart for dozens of counts of theft by deception, forgery, and related offenses in the embezzlement case. There was no indication he had hired an attorney to represent him in the civil suit filed by Shapiro’s office.

Shapiro’s lawsuit asks for restitution and civil penalties. Investigators estimate the total amount of money Huntsman Farms allegedly stole from its customers to be at least $30,000, but it is unclear how many people bought equipment from the company. Prosecutors believe there are more people who have been victimized than those they have already identified, and urged anyone who lost money to the company to contact the office.

» READ MORE: From 2019: "A Chester County property manager embezzled almost $1 million from condo associations, DA says"

According to the lawsuit, some customers paid for products they never received. Others received only some of the pieces they ordered, while still others who did receive their orders said the equipment was installed incorrectly by crews sent by the company, with missing bolts and other hardware, making it unsafe.

The few customers who received refunds were only able to do so by disputing charges with their banking companies, or after making multiple complaints about Huntsman Farms to the Better Business Bureau and Shapiro’s office, the lawsuit said.

But many saw their complaints to the company’s customer service lines go unanswered. Eventually, the lawsuit said, the company’s website was taken down.

Perhaps that’s because Huyler was sentenced in May 2021 to state prison. Chester County District Attorney Deborah Ryan said at the time that Huyler had run a “complicated pyramid scheme” and stolen from nearly two dozen homeowners associations in Montgomery and Chester Counties, as well as parts of South Jersey and Delaware.

Huyler, who was hired by the associations to be their business manager between 2017 and 2018, hid his theft by comingling their funds with his own, and shifting money between the accounts. He forged bank statements, changed account names, and doctored books and records to create a “false impression that the [associations’] money was being maintained properly,” according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.