Two Sandy Fraud contractors sentenced in Ocean County, NJ to several years in prison

Two men from out of state have been sentenced to several years in prison for stealing money from Ocean County residents where they and their business were supposed to to work and repairs.

Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced Friday afternoon that 57-year-old John Bishop of Celebration, Florida, was sentenced to four years following his previously entered guilty plea to Theft by Failure to Make Required Disposition and his business partner, 50-year-old Paul Rueda of San Diego, Texas, was sentenced to five years following his previously entered guilty plea to Theft by Failure to Make Required Disposition.

Bishop and Rueda ran a contractor businesses between October 2014 and May 2017 following Superstorm Sandy with the pitch that they would make repairs to homes in Ocean and Monmouth Counties. 

Through John Paul Building LLC, they started in 2012, the men went into contracts with six homeowners in the area and collected more than $350,000 in fees to do work on the homes and even agreed to use that money for the homes but had no desire to do so and never returned any of the money.

Between July of 2016 and May of 2017, they entered into deals with four other homeowners under the same rouse just with a new business -- PKR Construction -- collecting $363,575 and still did not return any of the money for work not entirely done.

They will pay now as Bishop was ordered as part of his sentence to pay $178,425 in restitution to the victims, and Rueda was ordered to pay $542,800 in restitution to the victims.

Prosecutor Billhimer also announced that Ocean County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Heisler handled the case on behalf of the State.