Apr 7, 2008 9:30 pm US/Eastern
Task Force To Probe West Deer Condo Developer
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
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More than three dozen condos in West Deer are up for sheriff's sale at no fault of the owners.
KDKA
A local developer's bad debts have set in motion the largest sheriff's sale in Allegheny County history.
Now KDKA has learned the pain the developer has caused doesn't stop at the county line and now the mess has been handed over to a federal task force for investigation.
Thirty-eight condominium owners in West Deer may lose their homes because a developer won't pay his bills.
Well - that's just the start. It turns out Michael Peretto and the Links Development Company owe millions upon millions of dollars to banks and contractors all over the region.
The Villages at Totterridge is an exclusive new enclave in Westmoreland County and despite a downturn in the housing market, sales have been brisk, attracting well-to-do buyers with upscale condominiums and townhouses.
But while Peretto seems to be pulling in the cash, he has neglected paid the dozen or so contractors who built the complex, stiffing them for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"You know I have a family too to take care of," Shawn Sciotti, a plumber, said. "It's been a tough winter."
"I had some guys that sweated and worked their rear-end off to do this job and they did him a good quality job," Morris Cooper, of J&R Paving, said. "There's no complaints on the workmanship. He just refuses to pay."
The offices of Peretto's Links Development Company are vacant shells and Peretto doesn't answer the door at his sprawling home.
But he's the same man who developed the Hunt Club in West Deer where 38 occupied condos are up for sheriff sale because he owes a bank and the site excavator more than $3.5 million. Even though Theodore Hazlett and 37 of his neighbors are current on their mortgages and taxes, they may lose their condos.
"My house is going to be gone. I mean it's a beautiful place, and we're not going to have it. It doesn't make sense," he said.
And these contractors say enough is enough.
"This type of guy needs someone now to irritate him and that's how I feel," Cooper said. "And he's not going to see the last of me. Even though I lost $60,000, I'll spend another $60,000 to see that he pays it."
"They did work for him in good faith and obviously they weren't paid," Allegheny Co. Sheriff Rich Fersch said.
There are scores of claims against Links and Peretto on file in both the Allegheny and Westmoreland County courthouses. Now both counties have requested federal help to investigate Peretto and Links Development.
"So upon receiving and reviewing this information and with the OK of the sheriff, we sent it down to the U.S. Attorney's office," Fersch said.
The matter has been turned over to the US Attorney's Mortgage Fraud Task Force which brings together federal, state and local law enforcement to investigate mortgage fraud.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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