Warrant: CT developer took $300,000 payment for land he never owned
Farmington Valley developer William Ferrigno last year took $300,000 from a New Jersey couple with assurances that he was buying Avon land for them and would start building a new home, but never made good on his promises, according to Avon police.
Ferrigno, who had built a solid reputation over decades before falling into apparent financial trouble, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Hartford Superior Court on a charge of first-degree larceny.
Numerous subcontractors, frustrated would-be homebuyers and other creditors are suing Ferrigno and his business, Sunlight Construction Co., alleging that he simply stopped paying bills or walked away from partly completed homes after collecting advance payments.
Mitch and Cynthia Aronson of Raritan, N.J., are among those suing Ferrigno, but their situation also yielded a felony charge against him, the only criminal case he is facing.
The Aronsons told Avon police this summer that they reached a deal in the summer of 2022 for Ferrigno to buy the undeveloped land at 28 Windsor Court as the site for a new home he would build for them. The property, slightly less than an acre, is near the Canton line and had been owned for a decade by Toll CT Limited Partnership, an affiliate of the national Toll Brothers development company.
The Aronsons gave Ferrigno and Sunlight three checks in July and August of 2022, they told police. One, marked as a deposit for the property, was for $25,000; the second, marked “land purchase,” was for $200,000, and the third, marked “28 Windsor CT payment,” was for $75,000, according to the arrest warrant affidavit for Ferrigno.
Over the next year, the Aronsons grew concerned as they received no forms for the real estate purchase and saw no signs of a house being built.
“William met with me with numerous subcontractors to plan the kitchen, flooring and tiling, and continued to set up meetings with Viking Kitchen to design the master bedroom as late as June 28, 2023,” Mitch Aronson told police this summer in a written statement.
As the Aronsons grew increasingly suspicious, they sent a written demand on June 29 via Fed Ex that Sunlight refund their money. A month later, they hired attorney Gregory Piecuch to pursue a civil case against Ferrigno.
“William Ferrigno continued to represent that he owned the land through the entire experience. I continually asked for plans and any proof of development, but William was unable to provide any proof of progress other than sketches,” Mitch Aronson told police in a statement.
Piecuch also reported details of the transaction to Avon police. Piecuch told investigators that after examining the 2022 written agreement between the Aronsons and Ferrigno, he concluded they were victims of fraud because Ferrigno had claimed to have a contract to buy the land from Toll CT. But in fact, town land records showed that Torrington-based T & M Real Estate bought the land from Toll CT in May of 2023.
Officer Dustin Rinaldo contacted T & M Real Estate, which confirmed that it owned the land, that Sunlight had no claim on it, and that Ferrigno had never contacted T & M about it. Rinaldo said he tried to contact Ferrigno about the matter, but could get no response.
Ferrigno showed a “pattern of not answering the client and not taking any steps to complete the work he had agreed to” in another case in Avon, Rinaldo said. That one, however, has not resulted in a criminal charge.
Ferrigno turned himself in at police headquarters on Oct. 6. He has been free pending trial. A message left at Sunlight’s office Tuesday was not returned.
