JUNEAU, Wis. — A Beaver Dam contractor has been ordered to repay $70,000 to one of his former customers after the contractor spent the customer’s money on personal purchases.
According to Dodge County court records, 40-year-old Norbert Ortiz was also sentenced to five years of probation for theft by a contractor.
In October 2019, a resident signed a contract with Diamond Remodeling, which is owned by Ortiz, to have roughly $44,000 worth of work done to his home. As work progressed, Ortiz and his client made changes to the contract, and the resident ended up paying a total of $110,497.
Roughly eight months later, when progress stalled, Ortiz’s client asked Diamond Remodeling to stop working and return all unused funds and materials. Ortiz told police he was 90% done with the project and he didn’t have any money or materials to return to the homeowner.
Police went on to search Diamond Remodeling’s bank accounts and found Ortiz had only spent $39,705 of the homeowner’s money on remodeling costs. Ortiz spent more than $61,000 on purchases from Google, restaurants, groceries, casinos and cell phone service. Court officials said Ortiz also paid himself $38,230 for the work he did.
COPYRIGHT 2021 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
