Joe Vaccarelli worked as a newspaper journalist for nearly a decade prior to joining the team at Denver7 in April 2020.
The owner of a home remodeling business, his father and multiple business associates accused of defrauding dozens of customers over a multi-year period are facing 17 additional criminal charges after the Colorado Attorney General’s Office filed a new grand jury indictment Thursday.
Sean and Avi Schwalb, along with four employees of Schwalb Builders, are now facing 51 felony counts between them on charges including theft, money laundering and violation of the state’s organized crime act.This supersedes the grand jury indictment filed in December 2024 by the attorney general's office that charged the Schwalbs and three employees with 34 felony counts.RELATED: 'It's criminal what they've done:' Clients react to criminal indictment against Schwalb Builders owner, fatherThe indictment alleges that Schwalb Builders would solicit business from customers and take in payments, but would either not do any of the work or abandon projects after demolition, leaving homes uninhabitable. In several of the cases, the victims had paid more than $100,000 toward the project, but the money was never returned.It also states that through a financial analysis, an investigation uncovered that customer checks were deposited into Schwalb Builders’ account, but transferred to Avi Schawlb’s business account for his company, Avi’s Remodeling. Those funds would then be spent within a matter of days, but not on the customer’s project. The indictment alleges that more than $1 million was transferred between Schwalb Builders’ and Avi’s Remodeling’s accounts.The new indictment includes theft charges stemming from incidents involving multiple new victims not mentioned in the initial indictment, including one subcontractor who claims she was not paid for providing workers to Schwalb Builders for certain projects.The money laundering charge stems from a sworn deposition given by Blanca Dominguez, an office manager for both Schwalb Builders and Avi’s Remodeling, in December 2024 for a civil case against Sean and Avi Schwalb where she provided facts on how customers’ money was transferred between accounts.Sean and Avi Schwalb are both out on bond after being arrested in January. Sean is charged with 49 of the 51 counts while Avi is charged with 47. Three of the of the employees charged – Kevin Allbritton, Michael Stein and Alex Padgett – were project managers and face charges related to the clients they brought to the company.Dominguez is also charged and faces 11 counts. Padgett was not charged in the original indictment.Read the new indictment here or below. Denver7 Investigates has been reporting on Schwalb Builders and its business practices for more than a year after hearing from multiple customers who either never had any work done or paid thousands of dollars only to have their home left unlivable.Sean and Avi were both named in more than a dozen lawsuits regarding the business, multiple of which are still open.Avi was also recently sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for harassing tenants at an apartment complex he owns and threatening to report them to immigration authorities after they fell behind on rent.The Colorado Attorney General’s Office did not comment on the new charges, but when the first indictment was announced, Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement that “this type of alleged theft and contractor fraud won’t be tolerated in Colorado.”
Colorado Attorney General's Office Denver Investigative News Denver7 Investigates Denver7 Investigates Jaclyn Allen Denver7 Investigates Joe Vaccarelli Investigative News Phil Weiser Schwalb Builders Sean Schwalb
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