A Texas couple has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy charges after posing as contractors and bilking unsuspecting homeowners out of nearly $5 million for remodeling projects they never completed.
Christopher Judge and his wife Raquelle Judge are now facing prison time for the home improvement scheme after pleading guilty last month, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
The couple promised, according to federal prosecutors, to provide custom architecture, construction and interior design services to customers from August 2020 to January 2023 through their company Judge DFW, using below-market bids and false claims that Christopher was an architect to best their competitors.
“The defendants then started construction projects and accepted multiple installment payments from victims,” prosecutors explained, “but never completed those projects, often leaving victims without a completed residence.”
According to plea documents, the couple defrauded an estimated 40 victims in at least 24 different construction projects throughout Northern Texas, totaling an estimate loss of $4.8 million.
Authorities said the couple “commingled victims’ installment payments” into one central operating account, “frequently using individual victim installment payments for unrelated construction projects.”
They also used the money on themselves, according to court documents, buying $82,000 in Amazon purchases, paying $27,000 in mortgage payments and spending approximately $10,000 on plastic surgery, NBC DFW reported.
Clients of Christopher and Raquelle Judge Describe Shoddy Work, Costly RepairsClient Kristin Newman had hoped to build her dream house after paying off her law school loans. As she recounted to WFAA, she was initially impressed by the couple.
“Raquelle did a lot of the talking,” she remembered. “Chris was introduced as the architect and builder.”
Although the project initially “started out great,” Newman told the news outlet that the tasks weren’t getting done and she felt she was getting overcharged for items. Some supplies that had been paid for, like the windows and doors, never arrived. Yet, when she confronted Christopher about the ongoing problems, he cut off communication with her.
“He just walked off,” she recalled. “He just stopped talking to us. Never came back.”
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Lane Simmons and his wife also turned to the couple to remodel their Euless home, paying them nearly $200,000. He recalled that the couple “really pitched themselves as like this Chip and Joanna Gaines type of vibe,” referring to the popular home improvement tv stars. Yet the project dragged on and they later learned much of the work that had been completed was done incorrectly.
“My house — everything that they did is wrong,” Simmons told WFAA. “Within weeks, my tile is cracking. My floors are cracking. My kitchen floor is sinking in. The exterior trim looks like a child did it. All the framing, we had to re-tear out and rebuild. My staircase had to be re-torn out and rebuilt. It was only held up by one piece of board on the inside. Just code violation after code violation.”
Now, he’ll have to sink more money into the project just to repair the existing problems.
Newman, who also recounted her experience to NBC DFW, estimated that she paid the couple about $200,000 before she fired them. She was forced to spend another $200,000 to finish house, but by then she’d sunk too much money into the project and was forced to sell her dream home and move in with her parents.
She said the experience now has her asking, “How can someone do that to another person?”
Jeremy Congleton had a similar experience, telling NBC DFW that Christopher also disappeared in the middle of his home renovation project. He ended up finishing the house himself as he and his family lived out of an RV for 18 months and were forced to declare bankruptcy. He estimated the whole experience cost him about $250,000.
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When Do Christopher and Raquelle Judge Face Sentencing?
Federal prosecutors have now put an end to the couple’s fraud. Raquelle pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Dec. 17, and faces up to five years in federal prison. She’s scheduled to be sentenced on April 14.
Her husband Christopher also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Dec. 30 and will face up to 20 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for May 12.
In addition to prison time, the couple could also face restitution, monetary penalties or terms of supervised release, prosecutors said.
