Man Pleads Guilty in Connection with Contractor Scam that resulted in over $1 Million in Losses
TEWKSBURY– Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan has announced that Pasqualino Vittorio Spadorcia has pled guilty in connection with repeatedly and continually committing larceny by contracting to perform substantial home improvement repairs and projects with no intentions of completing the projects. In total, Spadorcia was successful in cheating the 17 victims named in the indictment out of over $1 million dollars. There have been more than one hundred home owner-victims identified during the course of the investigation, with additional victims coming forward since the indictment.
Spordacia entered pleas of guilty to 17 counts of larceny by false pretenses and being a common and notorious thief. Judge Janice Howe sentenced him to serve 8-10 years in state prison with probation to follow. The probations includes conditions that he seek and maintain employment, that he not apply for a Contractor’s License for Home Improvements from the Commonwealth, that he file federal and state tax returns as required, annually, and provide a copy to probation, that he annually provide probation a statement of assets and liabilities, income and expenses, that he begin making restitution payments through the probation department after a ‘Henry’ hearing (to determine his financial wherewithal to make restitution payments) which hearing is to be scheduled six months after his release from prison.
The Court found that the total amount of restitution due and owing the victims named in the indictment is $1,148, 737.67.
“This defendant repeatedly and intentionally cheated homeowners of their money by lying about both his expertise and the legitimacy of his business,” said District Attorney Ryan. “Further, he made explicit efforts to create a false image of legitimacy which significantly hindered victim’s ability to conduct their own research of the business before engaging in business with him. His actions cost homeowners significant financial loss and worse, despite spending their money, the home renovations were never completed.”
From 2018 – 2021, Pasqualino Spadorcia owned and operated Design Concepts Pro Contractors, Inc., a home improvement company operating and licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and doing business out of his home in Tewksbury. The Massachusetts Secretary of State dissolved the corporation in December, 2021.
To give the impression of a legitimate business, Spadorcia established a website for Design Concepts on which he placed multiple stock photos, easily found on the internet, of various home improvement construction projects which he falsely represented as depicting work undertaken and completed by his business. He also paid to get Design Concepts listed on Angie's List, with the expectation that homeowners seeking contractors there would see his business, read the reviews of supposed `satisfied customers,' and hire him. Spadorcia artificially inflated his ratings on Angie's List by submitting dozens of bogus, but exceedingly flowery, positive reviews, so that the positive reviews far outnumbered the negative reviews submitted by actual clients of the defendants.
Once Spadorcia had a contract with a client, he would and did seek substantial deposits at the time the contracts were signed, frequently exceeding the one third of the total contract price allowed by the law of the Commonwealth, specifically G.L. c. 142A, § 2(6). Often times he would delay beginning the work or do no work at all at the property, but not return the money.
His scams also included conducting and charging clients for unnecessary demolition, collecting payment for supplies such as kitchen fixtures and cabinets but never ordering the items and failing to pay subcontractors.
Over the course of four years Spadorcia stole from homeowners in Middlesex County, as well as in Essex, Norfolk, Worcester, Plymouth, Bristol, and Suffolk Counties as well as in New Hampshire.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Doug Cannon and Michael Klunder. The victim witness advocate was Rene Leone.