Owner of Pittsburgh interior design business charged with scamming clients out of over $400K
The owner of an interior design business is facing charges after investigators said she took more than $400,000 from several clients across the Pittsburgh area and never completed the work.
Forty-four-year-old Lauren Piasecki of Pittsburgh's Morningside neighborhood, the owner of Black Cherry Designs, is facing a slew of charges, including home improvement fraud, unlawful taking and deceptive business practices, the Allegheny County District Attorney announced on Monday.
Dozens of pages of court paperwork detail the accusations against Piasecki. In one case out of Fox Chapel, investigators said Piasecki took over $160,000 for services and products that were never delivered, instead spending the victim's money on personal expenses like hotels, liquor stores, Amazon purchases and hundreds of ATM withdrawals.
When a detective with the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office talked to Piasecki about that case, the criminal complaint says she admitted to owing the victim "in the range of $170,000 to $212,000."
Between the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office, Pittsburgh police and Mt. Lebanon police, Piasecki has been connected to eight different cases, with a total of $488,774.88 in alleged stolen funds.
