Holtzman Construction bankruptcy: Owner questioned by clients under oath
Holtzman Construction owner Brandon Holtzman testifies under oath during a Chapter 7 hearing.
PHOENIX - The first on-camera statements have emerged from the owner of an Arizona construction company accused of taking money from clients and never finishing the work they paid for. After a FOX 10 investigation began into these claims, the company filed bankruptcy on four LLCs.
What they're saying:
Brandon Holtzman, owner of Holtzman Construction, Remodeling, and two other related LLCs, spoke under oath at a bankruptcy hearing as clients grilled him on his business practices.
"Would you please state your name for the record now that you've been sworn in?" asked Eric Haley, a Chapter 7 panel bankruptcy trustee.
"Brandon Scott Holtzman," Holtzman replied.
Holtzman appeared with his lawyer for the hearing Monday morning. As 50% owner of the company, with the other 50% owned by Danny Holtzman, Brandon Holtzman spent most of the hearing pointing to a specific salesperson and a specific operations manager as the reason the company was unable to finish numerous projects.
"You've got a whole lot of people on the line now whose projects were not completed. What happened?" asked Philip Rudd, a bankruptcy law attorney, during the hearing.
"The gist of what happened was that there was one person in the company that was selling large projects to multiple homeowners," Holtzman said. "He sold the jobs based on them not being profitable to take a commission for himself and the operations manager allowed them to go through the actual system showing that they were profitable and that's basically what happened."
Attorney General reviewing complaints against Holtzman Construction after bankruptcy
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Dig deeper:
Neither of those employees are owners or managers in the Holtzman LLCs, according to Holtzman's testimony. The system Holtzman describes is one he created himself.
"Is this not a commercially available system?" Rudd asked.
"It is not," Holtzman answered.
Holtzman said "to the best of his knowledge" he had never prepared a financial statement for anyone other than Haley. At that point, an anonymous Zoom user interjected to say Holtzman was a liar. Haley quickly made comment that all other people should be muted.
Later in the hearing, Holtzman told Haley he was not really in charge of the insurance information for the company and pointed Haley to a human resources employee. Holtzman said he was overseeing all of this until he says he temporarily left the company because he "needed a break" in May 2025.
Holtzman said the company property, including several company vehicles, is at a location the bankruptcy auctioneer is aware of. When asked if there had been an investigation into any misappropriation of funds, Holtzman said no investigation had been done internally.
Holtzman said leadership became aware of its inability to pay debts two weeks before filing bankruptcy on Oct. 2. He said at that time, the company was not taking in any funds from new projects, but was taking progress payments for ongoing projects.
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The other side:
Several clients and subcontractors grilled Holtzman about their individual projects and payments.
"When I contacted Pinal County on my permit, you hadn't talked to them for months, and they had some questions about my permit, but you took my check," one person said.
"Why did you take on a project for a disabled vet and took a large deposit from us?" another asked.
"Why were we not notified that you weren't even able to start our project but yet you were still taking our deposit money?" another pressed.
"The company, as stated, had ran into difficulties, and it was unexpected," Holtzman said.
What's next:
During the hearing, Holtzman was also asked if he is operating any construction companies anywhere else. Holtzman said he is not.
However, a FOX 10 investigation has shown a Brandon Scott Holtzman is tied to a Holtzman Construction LLC out of California, which still shows an active contracting license on the California State License Board website.
The Source: Information in this report was gathered from Brandon Scott Holtzman, owner of Holtzman Construction, Remodeling, and related LLCs; Eric Haley, Chapter 7 panel bankruptcy trustee; Philip Rudd, bankruptcy law attorney; unnamed clients and subcontractors who spoke during the bankruptcy hearing; an anonymous Zoom user; records from the California State License Board website; and prior reporting by FOX 10.