Entrepreneur accused of felony claimed his twin brother was responsible for the mistakes

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CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – A local contractor faces a felony charge after receiving more than $ 13,000 in payments from a client and has never completed the job. The WBTV Investigates team found several other clients who were also having issues with the subcontractor and all claim to have found it on online websites that put consumers in contact with subcontractors, raising questions about the process. operation of websites.

Sharise Lloyd and Rita Peace met because they hired the same entrepreneur, Arim Isabel. They just didn’t know it at the time.

Because the person I met is called Erick, Lloyd told WBTV.

What do you think you are now Arim? asked a reporter from WBTV.

What I do know is Arim.

Lloyd and Peace both contracted earthworks and other small projects at their homes in Concord. Peace worked with Arim Isabel. Lloyd thought she was working with her twin brother Erick.

It turns out there is only Arim.

When we realized that too, it was all lies after lies, Lloyd said.

Lloyd has given WBTV dozens of text messages showing work delays and apologies that she is now questioning, such as an alleged suicide attempt by her twin brother Erick. Erick’s text messages even came from the same number that WBTV has for Arim Isabel.

Lloyd paid a $ 5,000 deposit but said everything he delivered was bogus.

The inspector came out and said no, it’s not even up to code when it comes to, not even just the piece of railing, but the type of material he was using, Lloyd said.

When she went to tell Peace, it was too late. Peace had already made a deposit of $ 10,365.

Peace decided to cancel the contract before the work even started, then went on a mission to find other people who hired Isabel.

WBTV also started to search.

I sort of believed he was a fair guy and was going to get the job done right, said Diallo McDuffie.

McDuffie is a local contractor and hired Isabel as a subcontractor to complete some closing work. But McDuffie filed a lawsuit against Isabel after paying her a down payment of $ 1,900 and said Isabel never did the work.

Quyen Vo hired Isabel for a patio and concrete project at her home in Randolph County. She ended up paying him over $ 13,000 before filing a police report.

The moment the first transaction is made is when it has stopped showing up, Vo said.

Isabel now faces a felony charge for obtaining property under false pretenses in Randolph County. WBTV learned that Isabel provided Vo with a fake number claiming that he was putting her in touch with a provider who demanded payment.

You know when you are a victim, you are blind. You’re caught off guard and it’s just the reality and I don’t want this to happen to anyone else and I hate to have it happen again after my case, Vo said.

WBTV spoke with Arim Isabel but he did not accept an interview on camera. He said he had text messages, videos and pictures to support these stories, but he never sent them.

The text messages provided to WBTV by the victims show many contradictions with what Isabel said.

In a text to Lloyd he said he sold his business, but in a recent bankruptcy filing he claimed he had not sold any businesses or generated business income for years.

Isabel also told WBTV that her alleged twin brother was a licensed contractor in North Carolina, but WBTV couldn’t find any supporting records, or even that Erick exists.

All of Isabel’s clients that WBTV spoke to believed they had done their due diligence because they discovered Isabel from a website that links contractors to clients. HomeAdvisor, Angi, HomeGuide and Houzz all had pages for Isabels companies. Houzz always has an active page for one of the Isabels company names.

WBTV has previously investigated websites that help connect consumers with questionable entrepreneurs.

Now these customers have warnings on the websites.

Vo told WBTV that she searched for a contractor on Homeguide and was subsequently contacted by Isabel. She assumes that Homeguide gave Isabel her contact details.

It took them a while to remove (her) website, she said of Homeguide.

Sharise Lloyd found Isabel after using HomeAdvisor to find a contractor.

I felt like I did due diligence because I used HomeAdvisor. I thought they had done their due diligence, Lloyd said.

I would never use a site like this again.

WBTV reached out to Angi / HomeAdvisor (which merged in 2017), Homeguide and Houzz to inquire about their verification process and their steps to remove a contractor page after numerous customer complaints.

Houzz and HomeGuide never provided an answer.

In an email, an Angi / HomeAdvisor spokesperson wrote This individual was part of the HomeAdvisor pro network for a few months at the end of 2019. This pro, like all the pros on HomeAdvisor, has completed our selection process. To ensure the quality of our network, we also monitor customer ratings, reviews and awareness. After receiving complaints about this pro, we quickly kicked him out of the network.

A review of the HomeAdvisor / Angi selection process shows that the company performs a criminal background check on potential contractors as well as a search for contracting licenses and state trading licenses.

However, this background check does not include lawsuits against the contractor, and WBTV has repeatedly found that consumers who seek criminal charges against contractors in North Carolina are rarely successful.

Peace calls on law enforcement officials to take more responsibility for investigating these types of cases.

I think if the police would just take a report and let multiple reports pile up so that at some point an officer would be like, okay, who maybe we should be looking at this guy, Peace said.

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