NC scammer ‘ripped off’ hundreds of Triangle elderly. Now he owes them $4 million.

A Chatham County man who developed personal relationships with his victims, calling them “Momma” and “Poppa” while defrauding them of over $3 million, was sentenced Monday in federal court.

Jorge Alberto Garcia, 41, pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of failing to file income tax returns, according to officials with the U.S District Court’s Middle District of North Carolina.

Prosecutors said Garcia, who ran “J&J Home Improvement” and “JH Home Improvements Inc.,” failed to complete construction work for over 50 homeowners in Durham, Chatham and Orange counties. He also is known as “Alberto Garcia” and “Roberto Garcia.”

He was sentenced Monday under a plea agreement to just over 10 years in prison, after which he will serve three years of supervised release and pay $4 million in restitution. His original charges could have brought him up to 22 years in prison.

“The lengthy sentence in this case reflects the depravity of the scheme,” said Sandra Hairston, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Prosecutors said Garcia was hired to complete home renovation projects between September 2015 and April 2020. Many of his clients suffered physical or mental disabilities, court documents noted.

He and his wife, Helen Smith-Flores, have not filed personal or business federal income taxes since 2007, records showed. The couple had a joint income of $3.2 million from 2014 to 2018, officials have said.

Smith-Flores also is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Court records show those charges were dismissed as part of her husband’s plea bargain.

Unfinished repairs, bad checks

Agents with the IRS Criminal Investigation division told prosecutors that Garcia, who never had a state general contractor’s license, developed personal relationships with them, calling them “Momma” and “Poppa.” He would ask them to solicit more work for him from their neighbors, the agents testified.

His clients, some of whom live with physical or mental challenges or on fixed incomes, paid Garcia before work was completed with personal checks, credit cards or by withdrawing money from investment accounts.

Homeowners who paid with a check told investigators that Garcia told them to leave the “to” line of the check blank or to issue the check to his wife, who investigators said would deposit the checks into her personal account or a business account for her Durham restaurant, La Cacerola Cafe and Restaurant.

Flores then would withdraw cash or issue a cashier’s check to her husband, the release stated. The couple also cashed some checks at their bank or the client’s bank, it said.

Garcia solicited more than one loan from some of his clients, prosecutors said, getting a loan twice in one day from one client who did not remember writing the first check.

When clients, their relatives or law enforcement confronted Garcia about the unfinished work, investigators said he would promise again to send workers, or return some of the money, either in a small amount or with a personal check that would be returned for insufficient funds.

The FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigations Division worked with local law enforcement, including the Durham Police Department, Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, Chapel Hill Police Department, Carrboro Police Department and Cary Police Department, to bring charges against Garcia and Smith-Flores.

“The victims in this case trusted Jorge Garcia, but unfortunately they were manipulated and deceived, said Robert Wells, the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge in North Carolina. “Garcia ripped off hundreds of elderly victims to fill his own pockets. Now he will pay for his crimes serving a federal prison sentence where he can’t swindle anyone else.”

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