FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 11, 2008

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Owner of Repair Company Sentenced on Fraud Charges Relating to Hurricane Isabel

(Norfolk, Virginia) – Richard C. Pirozzi, age 50, of Tracy’s Landing, Maryland, was sentenced today in Norfolk Federal Court to a prison term of 13 months for mail fraud and engaging in monetary transactions in criminally-derived property. The court took the issue of restitution to the victims under advisement pending the submission of additional information from the parties. A jury found Pirozzi guilty of those charges in June. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after the sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Walter D. Kelley, Jr.

Pirozzi was the owner and operator of National Restoration Specialists, Inc., a company based in Maryland which solicited persons in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area to hire the company to repair damage to homes resulting from Hurricane Isabel, which struck the area on September 18, 2003. The object of the fraudulent scheme devised by Pirozzi was to obtain money from homeowners on the basis of false and fraudulent representations. The company did not have sufficient work crews on the ground and none of the homeowners received the actual repairs for which they had contracted. In most instances, no repairs were performed. In some instances, the only work done by the company was to tear down already damaged property without making further repairs. In other instances, inadequate or substandard repairs were performed. During the course of the fraudulent scheme, additional homeowners were solicited even though the company had not completed repairs for homeowners already under contract. Homeowners turned over to the company checks which they had received from their insurance company or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These checks, made jointly payable to the homeowner and his/her mortgage company, were deposited into the bank account of National Restoration Specialists instead of being delivered to the mortgage company as intended. Approximately 49 homeowners paid an aggregate total of approximately $476,000 to National Restoration Specialists and did not receive the repairs services for which they had contracted.

The original prison range suggested by the Sentencing Guidelines was 51-63 months. After applying a credit for partial repairs performed by Pirozzi’s company, the Court reduced the range to 41-51 months, and then deviated from that range to impose a sentence of 13 months.

The case was investigated by the Norfolk Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Alan M. Salsbury prosecuted the case for the United States.