Hinsdale Car Wash Hides Assets From Family Who Lost Son: Court

HINSDALE, IL – Fuller's Car Wash purposely hid its assets from a Hinsdale couple suing the business over their son's death, a judge said Tuesday.

The judge suggested the family owners wanted to cheat the IRS or their creditors.

In a ruling, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Deborah Thorne accused the car wash, known as Fuller's Service Center, of gross mismanagement, self-dealing and general incompetence.

She decided to grant Hinsdale couple Brian and Kristine Richards' request for the court to assign a trustee to take full control of the car wash's business and finances. Fuller's fought the move.

Patch left a message for comment Wednesday with Fuller's attorney, David Welch of the Chicago-based Burke Warren law firm. He has not returned previous messages. The Richards family declined to comment.

In July 2023, a Fuller's employee fatally struck 14-year-old Sean Richards, a pedestrian, with a car at the Hinsdale car wash.

The judge's 31-page decision described how the family owners moved millions of dollars between Fuller's Service Center and related entities with little or no documentation.

Some of the transfers were considered personal loans to the owners, but more often than not, they were not repaid, the judge said.

The entities, which involve a suburban chain of car washes, purchased luxury cars for the family owners and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal credit card bills, the judge said.

Doug Fuller, a Hinsdale resident, is the president of Fuller's Service Center and president of the related entities, the court said.

The judge said Fuller had little involvement in the finances and seemed comfortable blaming others in the company for what he considered mistakes. In testimony, Fuller admitted to never reading the bankruptcy documents, she said.

"(Fuller's Service Center) and Mr. Fuller demonstrated the indecision and desire to cheat either the IRS (if the loans were never to be repaid) or its creditors (if this valuable asset was not liquidated for their benefit)," Judge Thorne wrote.

A month after Richards' death, the business started its effort to hide assets from the Richards family's expected lawsuit, the judge said. (They sued in December 2023.)

On Aug. 24, 2023, Susan Headley, Fuller's financial controller, emailed for the company's outside accountant's advice on how to invest the proceeds from the sale of one of its car washes.

Headley said in the message that with the Richards' lawsuit "looming over Service Center," she wanted "to make sure that the car wash proceeds are protected from any liability beyond what the insurance policy will pay out," according to the court.

In another email to the accountant, Headley made it clear that her goal was to create a separate entity, known as Munn Holdings, to protect the proceeds of the car wash sales "from the current lawsuit," the judge said. (Headley declined to comment Wednesday.)

In testimony, Fuller said Munn Holdings was set up to receive the proceeds from the sale of four car washes. Munn Holdings, which was created in March 2024, has the same six family shareholders as Fuller's Service Center, according to the court.

In deciding to appoint a trustee, Judge Thorne cited "fumbling and yet consistent efforts" by Fuller's to hide assets, refusal to avoid transfers and refusal to act as a fiduciary to its creditors.

"Over the last year, the Debtor has demonstrated that while it operates through numerous entities, the operation is really only one large entity where the Fuller Family members benefit and have for many years," the judge said.

On July 17, 2023, Sean Richards was walking on a public sidewalk from his orthodontist to the local library when a Fuller's employee struck him with a car.

The worker ended up crashing into Fontano's restaurant, injuring customers.

Last January, Fuller's Service Center filed for bankruptcy.