A Fort Worth homebuilder was sentenced to serve more than six years in federal prison Tuesday after he admitted to orchestrating a scheme in which he took millions of dollars from consumers who hired the married couple for remodeling and home construction projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Christopher Judge, 35, and his wife Raquelle Judge, 36,\u00a0pled guilty in December<\/a> to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senior U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means sentenced Christopher Judge to serve 78 months in federal prison to be followed by two years of supervised release, according to a written statement by federal prosecutors. Means ordered Raquelle Judge to serve one month in prison, prosecutors said. Both defendants were ordered to pay $2,794,680.73 in restitution, the statement said.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, the couple managed Judge DFW LLC, a Texas-based company that they claimed provided custom architecture, construction and interior design services. From 2020 to 2023, the Judges offered below-market bids to consumers, but after they entered design-and-build contracts, they would not finish the job, federal prosecutors said. They often abandoned the projects, according to the prosecutor’s office.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: FW couple pleads guilty to $5M building scheme in which customers paid for unfinished work<\/a><\/p>\n The couple also falsely\u00a0claimed Christopher Judge was a licensed architect. They would use victims’ payment to pay for another, unrelated construction project.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prosecutors said there are more than 40 victims across six counties in Texas. The Judges’ scheme led\u00a0to about $4.2 million in losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said in a statement that the Judges entire business model was “built on lies and deceit.”\u00a0<\/p>\n “This kind of brazen fraud strikes at the heart of consumer trust,” he said, “and our office will ensure that those who engage in such criminal conduct face justice.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Subscribe<\/p>\n