Fraud charges for ex-McCandless man in Arizona scheme
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A former McCandless man awaiting sentencing in March on federal fraud charges in connection with the sale of mobile homes was taken into custody on Friday in Arizona on new fraud charges that IRS agents say he perpetuated under an alias.
Jason Unangst, 36, who has been on home confinement in Chandler, Ariz., pending his sentencing in Pittsburgh, engaged web designers to design web pages for his "clients" and then never paid the designers, federal prosecutors said in court papers unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court.
Using the name Jason Jordan, he also convinced customers that he would deliver websites for their businesses, but the sites turned out to be inoperable, prosecutors said.
An IRS affidavit also indicates he persuaded a customer to invest in a web-based travel service that was not in operation and convinced that person to send money to the address of his "controller" and "legal advisor," who in fact was his mother-in-law, Kathy Lesoon, on Chartiers Avenue in McKees Rocks.
Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh last week asked U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab to revoke Mr. Unangst's bond because of the new accusations. The judge agreed and issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Unangst, who will be brought back to Pittsburgh for a hearing.
Mr. Unangst pleaded guilty last year to fraud related to a pyramid scheme in which he persuaded people to invest about $2 million in his plan to buy repossessed mobile homes and sell them in hurricane-ravaged areas.
Prosecutors said he took investor money and never bought any mobile homes.
First Published January 30, 2012 12:00 am
