FBI seeks victims in North Carolina home improvement fraud

A husband and wife are wanted in connection with a home improvement scheme that defrauded elderly customers out of $2 million, the FBI said Friday.

According to a news release from the agency’s Charlotte office, Jorge Alberto Garcia and Helen Smith-Flores are charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in connection with a scheme that defrauded at least 50 elderly victims. The FBI said Garcia and Smith-Flores operated a home improvement business between December 2014 and last month in Durham, Orange, and Chatham counties.

The FBI said Garcia approached elderly and retired victims at their residencies and offered his home improvement services to people largely on fixed incomes and who may have had significant health issues. The pair took large payments for construction jobs and never completed them.

Victims are being asked to come forward.