Here’s a nightmare scenario: your house is severely damaged in a rare storm, and you hire a legitimate-seeming contractor to repair it or to raise your house on stilts to prevent flooding the next time a storm comes. Instead, the contractor either never began the work or wandered off partway through, leaving you without the money or a livable house. That’s what the state of New Jersey has accused a duo of contractors who are also a couple of doing.

Here are the charges, according to NJ.com: “failure to make required disposition of property, money laundering, misconduct by a corporate official, financial facilitation of criminal activity, tampering with public records, filing a fraudulent tax return, failure to file a tax return, and failure to pay tax.”

The companies they own have similar charges. See, contractors who have been convicted of certain crimes had to disclose that if they own more than 10% of a company that took part in post-Sandy repair programs. One of the contractors charged in this case simply claimed that he owned less than 10% of the company.

New Jersey’s Division of Consumer Affairs also investigated the couple and their crimes against consumers, imposing civil penalties on the couple and demanding restitution for victims.

Couple charged with stealing $1M in Sandy repair money to buy cars, jewelry [NJ.com]

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