I just read Chad Clantons post about Bob Gonazalez in San Antonio and wanted to echo his hairy experience with Bob and give some clarification as to what was happening so that people can spot this in their own investments and STOP before they lose their hard earned money to a con artist. In short Bob was a a local version of Bernie Madoff, but sad to say, he is not uncommon and is not the only contractor running the game. Bob was running a classic "Ponzi Scheme" and I too was sucked into it much like Chad and at least seven other investors that I have now met after the fact who all say they were scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars over the years (some as long as seven years ago) by this high level predator. During our remodel, I got to spend quite a bit of time with Bob and got to know him and his operation very well - so well that I got inside the action enough that I was able to figure it out, and then alert his other investors to watch out and that's when his whole house of cards came crashing down. This was his game: this is the skeleton of the Ponzi Scheme and by no way do I think that it is limited exclusively to these actions - I am certain that there are many more ways these clever criminals can take advantage of people.
I will give a cursory overview of the Ponzi Scheme for those who dont know about it.
The scheme works like this: he would do whatever it took to win the bid up front - he would price it lower than other bids, with an amazing timeline. Not low enough to raise suspicions but low enough to win the bid - he knew the game well enough to know what a real quote would come in at. Then he would tell the client that he needed XX amount to get started on the project (usually around 20% of the total job) and then he would invite you to stop by the job site to see progress. this was where it became carefully scripted. Bob would make certain that your visit was timed perfectly. When you showed up, he would literally have seven or ten people running all around the property doing the tear down, banging hammers and running saws. it wasn't until i started visiting his other customer sites, that I witnessed the same workers being shuttled from one house to the next for this dog and pony show. I stood in the background and watched Bob meet with the investors while his band of misfit workers would carry boards from the front of the house to the back and then bring them through the house so the investors "saw them working". The investors of course were focused on the Charmer and like a cobra in a basket, were hypnotized. Once the investors had been sufficiently charmed, they would depart and bob would send everyone home or shuttle them to the next location for the next performance. yes - they did get some actual work done, but once the investors were gone, he would only leave one or two guys at the job site. Usually they didn't have sufficient instruction about what needed to be done and most days, they didn't have the supplies they needed to work, so little or nothing got done. But in talking to Bob, they were making all kinds of progress. If an investor showed up at a job site unannounced, the workers were instructed to say " I don't know call Bob" and avoid contact with anyone. I over came this and started talking with his workers directly, found several that he hadn't paid in weeks - they were angry and started talking.
So once he had your money and you saw the work being done and heard the updates, he hit you up for more draws - every Friday. The money flowed in and the ******** flowed out, but the work stalled and stalled. The excuses began to pile up. Broken pipes, daughter in the emergency room, brother died, need a rest, work too much.
Then once the first job started to get old and the months past, the investor got angry and started to threaten Bob with action. so now Bob would have to actually perform. he would gather his guys, get some progress done, let you inspect it and reassure you "were back on track - but I need that next draw to finish - I have to pay the AC guy and that's gonna be $6000." The money flowed once more, and slowly you are bleeding your wallet dry. when the time came that you had figured out what he did to you, and got a lawyer involved, he counted on a lot of people just firing him and walking away, or Bob would go out and find another sucker and use that money to come and either finish your job - often times a year or more later.
That's basically how it worked - sucker them in, spend all the money, then when he had to perform, he found another sucker to finance it for him.
I know - I know - its easy to say " you guys should have sued him, got an attorney" or "called the police". WE DID - LOTS OF PEOPLE DID. The issue is that when you are dealing with a guy who lives and operates outside of the law, it ain't so easy. It was too complicated for the cops to understand. They just said "sounds like a civil matter, you should get a lawyer." when it was actually 100% theft and a criminal case. I'm a former San Antonio Police Officer - believe me this guy and others like him are Criminals and can and should be prosecuted. The trouble is that in a big metropolis like SA, Austin or Dallas, Houston etc......there is so much crime that if it takes much time to think about it, then they brush it off. no blood? no guns? next please! file a report and they will call you back - maybe. I hired an attorney and was told, so he is still working on the house, but he just isn't finished when he said it would be..... right? umm well, sort of. The cost of the average renovation in SA is around $20k - $40k and the retainer for an attorney on a case like this is $around $10K - $20K upfront, win or lose and if your Bob hides behind an LLC, you can can throw in the towel right now, or if he files bankruptcy to get out of the judgement, then you get nada. The attorney said "you might get lucky and Bob wont even respond to the suit - you could win by default woohoo!." Does Bob have any assets or money in the bank we can go after? mmmmm maybe, don't know. Well, if he doesn't, then you get a very large invoice from your attorney and you get a shiny piece of paper you can hang on your wall that says " you win and Bob owes you money".........oh and by the way, you still need to go and spend another $25K to get the house finished by real contractor.
uugghhh!
if you hear of a contractor named Bob Gonzalez or Pleasant Renovations - RUN THE OTHER WAY
