A former Central Valley contractor on Friday pleaded no contest to charges of defrauding dozens of victims of the 2017 Tubbs Fire.
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Some of the victimized homeowners have still been unable to rebuild after they were led on a trail of deceit and broken promises, resulting hundreds of thousands of lost dollars they will likely never see again.
The Tubbs Fire was one of the most devastating blazes in California history after it scorched 36,810 acres of Napa and Sonoma counties in October 2017, and uprooted the lives of many Northern California families, including Brian and Jacqueline Scott of Larkfield.
When it came time for the Scotts to rebuild their home, they chose Tulare-based Chiaramonte Construction & Plumbing. The company's owner, Sal Chiaramonte, both met their price and told them "you're a Christian family and we’re here to help you," according to Jacqueline.
However, within weeks of the work beginning, the couple realized Chiaramonte was running out of money.
"We had to pay for our own cabinets, even though we had already given them the money for the cabinets," Jacqueline told KCBS Radio.
She added that things had to be torn out and redone "over and over again."
The bottom line was Chiramonte took their money but couldn’t finish the job.
The same thing happened to dozens of other fire victims the Tulare company had contracted with. Of the 40 homeowners Chiaramonte worked with to rebuild their residence, only two were completed.
"It was basically a ponzi scheme," Richard Freeman, who represented the Scotts and 13 other victimized families, told KCBS Radio. "It turns out they did not run their business like a business."
The 14 families in May, 2019 charged Chiaramonte with 59 counts, ranging across a variety of accusations of negligence and fraud.
Chiaramonte on Friday pleaded guilty to 13 counts of diverting funds of at least $1,000 and one count of theft from an elder or dependent adult. He will spend 18 months behind bars starting in June. Both he and his company are bankrupt.
Freeman said his clients lost approximately $100,000 to $120,000 each, and will likely never see that money again.
Meanwhile, the Scotts were able to find another contractor, but it cost them a lot more money and the work was shabby as the contractor had to "rip out a lot of what was done," according to Jacqueline.
She added that, on one hand, her heart tells her she never wanted to see Chiaramonte go to jail, but, "the other side of me, the logical side of me, says he took a lot of money from a lot of people, did not finish their homes. Most people that were contracted with him had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of loss."
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