Dozens of elderly homeowners lose thousands of dollars to construction fraud scheme
At least two dozen elderly and other vulnerable people in multiple states fell victim to a construction fraud scheme that tricked them into paying for thousands of dollars in home repairs they did not need, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Two men, James Dinnigan and Martin Maughan, were charged with enticing victims through illegitimate home improvement advertisements and then allegedly destroying their property to extort additional costs.
Dinnigan and Maughan recruited foreign nationals from Ireland and the United Kingdom who were illegally in the U.S. and falsely posed as legitimate home repair contractors, prosecutors said.
According to the criminal complaint, the scammers made false statements about their operation of legitimate home repair businesses, their occupation as contractors or engineers, and home improvement and construction projects the victims supposedly needed.
After being hired, members of the scheme tricked victims into paying for additional unwanted or unnecessary home repairs and other construction, including purposefully damaging or destroying the victims' property.
The perpetrators of the scheme then forced victims, including through threats, into paying them tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"As alleged, these defendants and their co-conspirators carried out a brazen scheme to defraud vulnerable members of our community by posing as legitimate home repair contractors and tricking homeowners into paying for thousands of dollars in unnecessary and unwanted home repairs," acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky said.
The FBI has identified more than two dozen victims who are elderly and have lost at least $1 million as a result of this scheme.
Most were in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
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