Homeowners: NC builder took money, left unfinished homes

They need to pull both the Cotto's licenses & prosecute them. They need to pay the homeowners back.

What an absolutely worthless attorney general! Josh Stein needs to go. He isn’t doing his job. This isn’t just one house. It’s multiple houses and they can’t even be bothered to look to see that.

The bank is the leader of these frauds. This is coming from the top. This bank needs to be investigated & so does the contractor.

Great Reporting Queen City News! Really good job. Go and get them Lisa Labelle! A lawyer should help her.

They need to lock his ass up if he took their money and did not build.

How is it that easy to steal people's money and just be so chill about it but absolutely no agency going after this guy

That woman is just as guilty as he is

One like this should be enough to press charges.

Someone should investigate if any of these companies also filed for and received PPP COVID money.

This was a well investigated piece. Thank you for shedding a light on this.

Truly shameful behavior by Mario, Joy, the bank and the AG’s office. This guy is a scam artist ripping off people with no remorse. How is he able to get away with this without any repercussions? Mario and his wife should both be in jail!

I live across the street from this mess. I'm in construction. This guy contacted us about digging footings on these jobs when all the land was first cleared like four years ago. We knew as soon as we met him he was not the type of person we like to do work for. Could tell he was not very experienced in construction management. Just a talker. Trying to sell himself by telling us how many jobs he had coming up. Hope the best for the homeowners that have been afected by this conman. But the court systems are not much help in this situation unless you have lots of money for lawyers. Helped a homeowner with a problem similar to this took like three years of court and never really but a judgement against him. Makes all of us contractors that try to do best for our homeowners look bad. Could all be avoided by get references and looking at work they have finished, and talking to homeowners they have built for. Anyone with a problem providing that is red flag to stay away.

Banks always blames the consumer for their mistakes.....

I hope Mario Cotto gets a year in prison for every single tear shed by those cheated out of their money and dreams.

I'm astounded by how calm amd logical some of the victims are. If I were in their situation I would be freaking out.

Cotto is full of bs he needs to be charged

Mario and Joy should be in prison. Crazy to blame anyone but the criminals scamming people. Hard earned american dollars completely stolen. And attorney general needs to do something.

Please keep us informed on the investigation ! Good new investigation thanks

Typical pass the buck from the attorney general.

When you have a constructive MAKE SURE IT IS IN THE CONTRACT no draws without homeowner signing off and ask demand invoices for all draws