Jul 25, 2008 8:36 pm US/Eastern
Developer Accused Of Not Paying Contractors
(KDKA)
At least a dozen people say they are out thousands of dollars through no fault of their own and the man that owes them the cash appears to be on the run.
The developer accused of stiffing dozens of contractors has been at the center of a similar investigation.
A few months ago, 138 condo owners in West Deer were threatened with sheriff sale when their developer defaulted on a million dollar bill. Now, that same developer is facing another sheriff sale at another development.
Shawn Sciotti is a plumbing contractor who works long hours to support his wife and kids, but for a year now he's been out $23,000 for work done at the Westmoreland County housing development called, The Villages At Totteridge.
"It hurts," he says. "I've had to cut back on a lot of things."
Sciotti is among one of a dozen villages contractors who haven't been paid by Michael Peretto, the president of the now defunct Links Development Co.
In September, his 37-acre estate and the entire villages development will go up for sheriff sale. Unfortunately, for Sciotti, he probably won't see a penny.
"It's going to come back and haunt him, sooner or later," say Sciotti.
Peretto and Links are the very same developers who forced 138 condo-owners in West Deer into sheriffs sale a few months back.
Even though those condo owners were all up-to-date on their mortgages, an excavation company took them to sheriff sale when Peretto defaulted on a one million dollar bill.
The company has since entered settlement talks with the title insurance companies -- and the sheriff sale has been stopped, but company attorney blames Peretto for all the trouble.
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