Out-Of-Control, Crooked Florida Contractor At It Again, Blatantly Ripping Off Homeowners While Dodging Felony Charges & Thumbing Nose At State AG

In Collier County, Florida, the Naples Daily News reports:

• A Collier County man who was banned from doing construction work and taking deposits is back at it, bilking homeowners and an investor in recent months, according to complaints filed with the Florida Attorney General's Office.
  
  In a petition filed earlier this month, the Attorney General's Office said it has received two complaints that Richard Leli Jr., a former construction company founder, has violated terms of a settlement reached in 2008. Under the agreement, which stemmed from Leli failing to deliver $1.6 million worth of construction work, Leli agreed to surrender his construction license, stop building in Florida and stop accepting advance deposits.
  
  But in December 2014, about six years after the settlement was reached, a Naples woman said she gave Leli a deposit of $6,375 to buy hardware to create Litecoin, an electronic cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin. She said she never saw any evidence of work done to fulfill her agreement with Leli.
  
  And in a complaint filed last month, a Sarasota County woman, Doris Gomez, said that Leli represented himself as an affiliate of her husband's contracting company, taking about $300,000 from six Florida homeowners. Leli, who was only supposed to be a go-between with her husband's company and another contractor, took deposits and pledged to construct pools, then never started or finished the work, Gomez said.
  
  "He got almost 50 percent of the deposit up front. He had no intention of doing these pools. He just wanted the money," Gomez said in an interview.
  
  The Attorney General's Office opened its own investigation following the December 2014 complaint, but Leli has failed to comply with a subpoena for financial records and tax returns, according to the petition.
  
  When reached by phone Wednesday, Leli said he hadn't seen the Attorney General's Office filing and wanted to read it before commenting. He didn't respond to a follow-up request for comment. Leli hasn't been charged with any crimes related to the complaints or the 2008 settlement.
  
  The Attorney General's Office first investigated Leli amid reports in the mid-2000s that he was failing to build homes as promised. At the time of the settlement, more than 100 contracts for incomplete homes were found, with buyers owed $1,625,075. The settlement allowed homeowners to seek up to $50,000 per claim from a state recovery fund.(1)
  
  Leli filed for bankruptcy several months before the settlement was reached, citing an asset deficit of about $1.3 million. Available records don't show how much Leli repaid to homeowners following the 2008 settlement.
  
  Leli has three pending misdemeanor cases in Collier County, all accusing him of forging checks totaling $4,157 in December 2014.

Source: Florida Attorney General says former Collier County contractor Richard Leli Jr. back cheating homeowners.

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(1) The Florida Homeowners' Construction Recovery Fund is a fund of last resort that is available to a natural person who has suffered monetary damages by the financial mismanagement or misconduct of a contractor, and who has exhausted all other resources of payment. The Construction Industry Licensing Board makes the determination of eligibility for an award. (information sheet, claim form).

But see, Action 9 investigates state recovery fund meant to help homeowners for a story on how some homeowners claimed they got the run-around from this fund.