The owner of a now-shuttered Anchorage motor home rental company has been ordered to pay more than $230,000 in fines and restitution after the state of Alaska found a pattern of deceptive business practices including bogus damage charges, illegally charging deposits and forged signatures.
Peter Harkovitch and Alaska Motor Home Inc. were hit with a default judgment in Anchorage Superior Court, requiring $183,000 in fines and approximately $50,400 in restitution to customers who were left out of pocket after the company abruptly closed during the peak of Alaska’s 2024 summer tourism season.
The closure left hundreds of visitors out thousands of dollars and scrambling for replacement vehicles, even as the company continued accepting reservations and payments through that July, according to an article by Anchorage Daily News.
The state Department of Law sued Harkovitch and the company in 2024, accusing the business of illegally charging customers for deposits, overcharging for taxes and forging at least one customer’s signature to charge her credit card for thousands in bogus damage claims.
According to the civil complaint, Harkovitch also had a history of using company assets to pay personal bills and make cash withdrawals in places like Las Vegas, Spain and Italy.
The ruling marked the second time a judge fined the business and its owners for similar conduct.
In 2021, Harkovitch, his son Cole and their business were ordered to pay $110,000 in connection with a 2019 lawsuit over unfair and deceptive practices.
Of that amount, only about $10,700 has been paid, partially through Permanent Fund dividend garnishments.
Concerns about the company’s practices date back to at least 2014, when it accused the Better Business Bureau of harassment for highlighting numerous consumer complaints.
Those complaints included the business not returning deposits for RVs that turned out to be unavailable, sending customers bad refund checks, delivering vehicles in poor condition and charging customers for damage they were not responsible for.
Peter Harkovitch is currently incarcerated in Florida, where he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and battery of a law enforcement officer charges, according to a statement from the Department of Law.
The state said he repeatedly violated the terms of the agreement reached to resolve the earlier case. No attorney was listed in court records for Harkovitch or the closed business.
The lawsuit was also originally named Cole Harkovitch, who co-owned the business with his father until removing his name about a month before the lawsuit was filed.
He was dismissed from the case in 2025. His attorney, Wayne Dawson, said he was removed because “he had nothing to do with it.”
In addition to the fines and restitution, Peter Harkovitch has been banned from owning a business in Alaska until he can demonstrate to a court that he would operate legally and direct business proceeds toward restitution debts.
