Maine contractor who bilked dozens dies

ROCKLAND, Maine — Malcolm Stewart, a contractor who bilked dozens of homeowners out of thousands of dollars, died last month.

The Maine attorney general’s office announced the death to the victims of his scheme in a letter dated Aug. 18.

“Maine Probation and Parole notified us that Malcolm Stewart died on July 28, 2026. As a result, Maine Probation and Parole will be filing a probation termination motion with the court. Unfortunately, this will end the criminal matter including the collection of restitution ordered in the criminal sentence,” the letter from Assistant Attorney General Suzanne Russell stated.

A cause of death for the 60-year-old man was not revealed, however, when Stewart was sentenced in October 2024, his defense cited that he was receiving kidney dialysis.

Justice Daniel Billings sentenced Stewart in October 2024, who was then living in South Carolina, to a fully suspended seven-year prison sentence. Stewart was put on probation for three years and ordered to make restitution of $385,000.

Billings acknowledged at the sentencing hearing held at the state court in Knox County the seriousness of the offenses committed by Stewart and the impact they had on so many people, but he said the deciding factor for suspending the prison time was the poor health condition of Stewart.

Stewart has end-stage kidney failure and has been receiving dialysis.

“I struggled as a judge and a human being,” Billings said before announcing the sentence he would impose. The justice said that any sentence of length would have Stewart spending a significant portion of his remaining years in prison.

The judge said he did not believe that Stewart went into the contracting business to defraud customers but fell behind and then made bad decisions to try to keep the business afloat.

“Capitalism encourages risk-takers,” Billings said at the sentencing hearing.

His death ends a saga that wiped out the retirement savings of many victims. The overwhelming number of victims were in their 60s, 70s, 80s and a few in their 90s.

The victims all asked at the sentencing hearing for Stewart to serve the maximum sentence reached in a plea agreement with the Maine attorney general’s office earlier in the year. That agreement called for seven years with all but 30 months suspended, with the 30 months a cap with the defense able to ask for less.

“Needless to say, we were all disappointed with the sentencing after having cooperated with the Attorney General’s Office on the case for over the past five years,” Rodney Lynch of Rockland said after the October 2024 hearing. “In doing so it has taken its emotional toll on all of us. The Attorney General’s Office and Stephanie Laite did an outstanding job in handling the case and should be commended for their efforts. We find no fault with them and only praise. Throughout the five-year ordeal I had mentioned to Stephanie that I never thought Malcolm would ever serve prison time for his crimes and would instead go free. Unfortunately I was right.”

Lynch lost $2,600 paid to Stewart.

The attorney general’s office had originally sought a prison sentence of eight years with all but five years suspended.

“Malcolm Stewart was a charismatic salesman. He gained the trust of victims and then betrayed them,” Assistant Attorney General Russell said in her opening statements for the sentencing hearing.

She said many of the victims were retired professionals, including a State Department official, law enforcement officers, teachers, artists and a town manager. The prosecutor said Stewart knew his business was failing but instead of pulling the plug, he continued to solicit customers and got money for jobs he knew would never be done. He also took loans from people that he knew he would never repay.

“He took their money, shook their hands, and was never seen again,” the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor noted that in a defense pre-sentencing memorandum, Stewart admitted he was “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Initially, there were 57 victims. Some died since the case began and others were too incapacitated to appear in court.

One by one, the victims, mainly local residents who were in their 60s, 70s and 80s, spoke about how Stewart convinced them to sign a contract for work that required a one-third down payment to get on his company’s work schedule. Several of those people had paid Stewart thousands of dollars and within a week, they learned he had closed the business and left the state.

Stewart was indicted in March 2021 by a Knox County grand jury for two counts of theft by deception — one for taking money for work he is accused of not intending to perform and the other for soliciting money for the company by misleading investors. He initially pleaded not guilty in May 2021.

The sentencing comes a little more than five years after the abrupt closure of his contracting business — Castle Builders in Union — in September 2019. The closure left employees owed pay, suppliers owed money and the homeowners with either no work or poorly done work on their homes.

Fifty-seven individuals were listed as victims of the offenses alleged to have occurred from April 2018 until September 2019 in Knox, Waldo, Hancock, Kennebec, Lincoln and Somerset counties. The prosecutor said some of the victims have died and some have become incapacitated. If the trial had been held, she said 33 victims would have testified.

Defense attorney David Bobrow detailed the defense in earlier court filings.

“As with many construction businesses, there were errors made in accounting and related to the work force, to name two areas,” the motions stated.

“As time progressed, Castle saw its income dwindling and its bills expanding as evidenced by the monthly summary. Castle hoped to secure cash infusion by bringing in a financial partner(s), but [was] unable to close any deal. Finally, without money to pay the employees, Mr. Stewart closed his business on Sept. 8, 2019, leaving behind all of his business and main personal assets,” the defense motion stated.

Of the scores of alleged victims listed in the indictment, the largest was one couple taken for $192,750, according to the state. The couple, from Damariscotta, had contracted with Stewart to build a garage and workshop.

Justice Bruce Mallonee ordered in September 2022 that Malcolm and Elizabeth Stewart and their defunct Castle Builders company pay $744,253 to benefit more than 100 former customers. The state won a default judgment after the couple left a Zoom call on what was to have been the first day of a civil trial in August 2022.

The couple and the company also filed for bankruptcy in the federal court. Stewart is a Canadian citizen and has a green card.

A case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court concluded in March 2023 with only $5,000 in claims being paid while nearly $40,000 in administrative fees were paid. The initial claims filed in the bankruptcy case totaled more than $1.1 million including taxes and payroll. There were 177 creditors listed in their bankruptcy filing, most of them former customers of Castle Builders. Former workers, suppliers and the government were also listed as creditors.

The attorney general’s office has previously stated in court filings that Elizabeth Stewart worked primarily as the office manager and bookkeeper for the company. Malcolm Stewart was the only person charged criminally in the case.

This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.