A Dutchess County man claims that a $500,000 home building project ballooned to nearly $1 million when a contractor botched the job and created bogus reports to conceal fraud.
Andrew Jarecki, of Pine Plains, accused contractor Domingo Manongsong of fraud, in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court, White Plains on June 10.
Jarecki describes a kind of fake it till you make it scheme.
He agreed to pay Manongsong Contracting, of Greenwich, Connecticut, $488,500 for carpentry, plumbing and painting at a classic colonial home on Hanlon Lane in Stanfordville, according to the contract.
Manongsong held himself out as a skilled contractor with extensive experience in building and remodeling bathrooms, according to the complaint, and he showed photographs of high quality bathrooms he had purportedly completed.
But after Manongsong got the job, he “showed confusion and lack of knowledge about how to approach basic tasks,” the complaint states.
For instance, Jarecki claims he saw the contractor searching the internet to find out how to install simple bathroom hardware. Another time, Manongsong was allegedly unable to install two new bathtubs.
The job was supposed to take six months, from February through July 2023, but was extended to this past February.
The contractor submitted weekly progress reports detailing how much time was spent by carpenters and plumbers and laborers, and how much work had been completed, to justify payments.
Jarecki says the reports were false, listing “phantom” workers and showing everyone working exactly ten hours a day every day for months.
Manongsong billed Jarecki for $745,500, even though the job was not close to completion, the complaint states. Jarecki paid $708,660.
Manongsong allegedly admitted that the progress reports included phantom workers and inflated hours.
Jarecki fired him and brought in another contractor to finish the job for $231,443. The new contractor, according to the complaint, determined that Manongsong’s work was worth about $400,000.
Jarecki accused Manongsong of fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment, and is demanding $450,000.
The complaint was originally filed in Dutchess Supreme Court on May 9 and moved to federal court at Manongsong’s request.
His attorney, Felix Q. Vinluan, did not reply to an email asking for the contractor’s side of the story.
