TEMPLE, Texas — In the wake of dozens of victims claiming to be out thousands of dollars from unfinished pool projects and repairs from the Temple company Moonlight Pool and Spa, a retired career criminal prosecutor said it's clear the company was engaged in "fraudulent practices."
"They take money from one person, they go onto the next person without finishing the first job, whether they took all of the money or partial, they left all of these clients with unfinished pools and no service on those pools," said Veryl Gambino.
Gambino said the victims could have grounds to enter into a class action lawsuit against Moonlight since they lost money through the company under the same circumstances with work left incomplete.
"That would go to show a pattern of fraudulent behavior," Gambino said. "It isn’t just one person towards the end of this who gave them money and didn’t get their pool finished, nobody got their pool finished and the company ghosted them."
In just two days, the Facebook group "Victims of Moonlight" has grown to 26 members claiming to have been ripped off by the pool company.
In the pursuit of damages for the money spent and incomplete work the customers were left with, Gambino said the victims could hire attorneys and have forensic accountants investigate the company's finances "especially if they believe the owners have been using the company's finances on themselves."
"They might not get their money back, especially if the company wasted the money, but what they can get is a judgement against the company, which means two, three, four years down the road, if one of these owners starts a new pool company or a new company and starts collecting money, that judgment is always against that person and they can perhaps collect from that," Gambino said.
Gambino said criminal charges could also be on the table and allow the respective district attorneys to potentially seek an indictment against one or all three of the employees in the company or issue a subpoena, all means to bring charges against the owners.
"Or they can have them arrested by the sheriff, city police or overseeing law enforcement agency," Gambino said.
Since complaints have been filed at both the county and state level, it would be up to the prosecuting agency to serve the owners with the subpoena or instruct local or state law enforcement to arrest them and bring them to jail.
6 News reached out to all three employees of Moonlight Pool and Spa for this story but our calls were not answered.
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