Developer Faces Fraud Charges

A Marengo developer pleaded not guilty Friday to all charges in a 23-count federal indictment that alleges that he defrauded customers and investors of more than $1 million.

The indictment claims that builder John M. Volpentesta, 50, defrauded at least four families using his company, Volpentesta Construction Inc., by charging the families for supplies that he then would use on a strip mall he owned. He also is alleged to have charged them for work that his company did not do.

The indictment charges Volpentesta with mail, wire and tax fraud. It alleges that between mid-2003 and the end of 2005, Volpentesta withheld $164,999 in federal income tax, Medicare and Social Security taxes from his employees’ paychecks, but never turned that money over to the Internal Revenue Service.

He faces three charges of failing to file Federal Unemployment Tax returns for his company from 2003 to 2005 and three more for failing to file personal income-tax returns for himself and his wife. |Read more|