WWYD? Harriman TN property w out of state investor being scammed

[Lynnette E.]

What would you do in this situation:

I am vetting various contractors to work on my rehabs. One lady I interviewed and received a bid from is smooooooth in her words, so much that you really want to work with her.  But I've been burned too many times and check out everything.  

In my checking I found out that her 'employees' are hired off the INTERNET with a "can you pass a background/drug check?...ok hired!"  $8 hour if inexperienced, $10 hour if experienced.  She does not even get their real names or make them fill out paperwork or do the checks.  All pay is actually under the table.  She also hires people with no experience and puts them in bad situations, and 1099s them so there is no workman comp, which she says she has on all employees.  Really she does not even have it on herself, best I can tell.  Also her license is not on the state webpage.

So in doing the check on this company, I found that they are working on a house rehab job for a CA investor and taking him to the cleaners!  Scamming him big time.  

Also using people in very dangerous situations.  e.g. using a chain saw in a large tree when the person has never used a chain saw before and has to have someone else start it because he does not understand how the safety bar works.  The chain saw was rented to remove trees close to  the house.  And yep, they dropped it on the house, smashing the corner of the roof and cracking the cement walk/drive.  

Apparently the owner was also scammed with tree roots and mold in the basement when it was really cellar fungus in the corner.  Turned into a mold abatement and foundation scam.

The business owner bought a new spray painter and did not know how to work it so 4 hours later she had it going, but a real mess on the wall that could not be fixed.  Real thick paint and splotched paint all over, also did n9ot clean the nozzle, so they told the owner that  it was poor finishing of the drywall.  So now they charged more to splatter mud all over it to match their screw up, plus charge to repaint..  

They are also putting in a French drain, but no one knows how it works or how it will divert water or be leveled, no one did one before, but they are looking at U-Tube videos.  

The scams go on and on.  Its a $350k or more house, pretty new on the lake (not like the 100 year old houses I buy). 

So, the business owner/scammer said that the owner in CA is wonderfully happy with her work.  Trusts her, blah blah.  So he probably has heard her side and believes it.  She says they are disgruntled employees who quit, which they did because they did not get paid and they did not like the scamming, did not want to ruin their reputation.  One owns a local business and has a great reputation.

One of the workers told/was telling the owner of the house about the problems.  Apparently the owner just thinks that his inspection prior to purchase missed a lot of things...expensive things.  So instead of checking himself he is believing this scammer.   They think the property owner is maybe Air Force, or past Air Force, but I do not know how they got that information.

I talked to the workers directly.  They know she is scamming this owner.  Some of these workers are very fixed in this community and credible.  Just wanted extra work in a slow period for their normal job and training was offered for the inexperienced.  They thought that the training would help them do things at their house.

The business owner kept dropping the building inspector into our bid conversation.  Well, I know him pretty well.  So today I asked him about her.  He never heard of her.  So she is working without permits.  And name dropping.

So, would you try to find the CA owner and tell him he may want to fly out and chat with the building inspector?  Drop it as he was warned by the workers?  I do not know his name, but did find his phone number linked to a diving facebook page.  Las Vegas area code, lives in CA so it matches what I know of him.

What would you do?