- Jesse LaCoste allegedly stole over $2 million from homeowners for years
- The state has charged him under Florida’s RICO Act along with a host of fraud and theft charges
- LaCoste is the brother-in-law of Matt Banks, another ex-contractor also charged under RICO for allegedly stealing over $5 million from homeowners
The brother-in-law of embattled Northwest Florida contractor Matthew Banks is also gearing up for his own trial related to allegations of contractor fraud throughout Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
A panel of jurors are scheduled to be picked Oct. 13 to sit before Jesse LaCostein which he is charged with racketeering, organized fraud and other felonies related to his alleged practice of taking customer money and not returning to work.
When asked about the case and trial, LaCoste’s attorney, Todd Early, told the News Journal, “It’s not as cut and dry as they want you to think it is.”
In November 2023, an Escambia County grand jury indicted LaCoste under Florida’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act as well as organized fraud, both first-degree felonies.
The grand jury found LaCoste used his company, LaCoste Construction Group, to conduct a pattern of racketeering activity, involving forgery, perjury, false official statements, theft and insurance fraud.
LaCoste allegedly defrauded homeowners, insurance companies and subcontractors of more than $2 million and falsified his applications to obtain his county and state contractor licenses, according to the state’s investigators.
Along with the fraud and racketeering case, LaCoste has an additional four cases opened by the Office of the State Attorney, facing in total four counts of grand theft, two counts of contractor fraud and two counts of insurance fraud.
Alleged victims of Jesse LaCoste reached out to Escambia County for help
Carol Bergeron had a Pensacola Beach home damaged during Hurricane Sally in 2020, but when she chose LaCoste to repair the damages, she felt she was scammed.
“The issue I have with LaCoste Construction Group is I was charged $104,765 for a new roof, repairs to two decks, and demolition to the interior of the house,” Bergeron wrote in a complaint to Escambia’s Contractor Competency Board. “This in my opinion was way over what the costs of the work performed actually were. The charges depleted all the funds I had received from the insurance company plus additional money I had given him for deck repairs. I don’t believe this money was used appropriately and strongly feel Jesse LaCoste scammed us.”
Bergeron says the only work he finished was the roof, and he left the house basically gutted, with no sheetrock or cabinets and she included pictures to prove her point. She ended up selling the house “as is” because she could no longer afford to keep it. Not only was she losing the nearly $3,000 a month in rent it usually brought in, but she was running out of funds to make the repairs.
Another Pensacola couple, James and Joan Mitchell, said they owed their bank almost $400,000 in loans after LaCoste failed to even get started on the house they hired him to build in 2022.
Jesse LaCoste’s brother-in-law Matt Banks faces RICO charges for alleged contractor-related scams
According to the Office of the State Attorney, Banks allegedly stole more than double the money LaCoste is accused of stealing, saying Banks “engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity, stole over $5 million in funds, materials and services from more than 150 victims” from 2019 to 2022.
Former Assistant State Attorney Russell Edgar said Banks “conducted Banks Construction LLC in an unlawful manner by committing instances of theft of money and funds from homeowners and business owners, by committing theft of payroll monies from his employees … forgery of building applications, workers compensation fraud and insurance fraud.”
Banks faces upwards of a dozen charges including fraud and RICO. He’s next scheduled to appear in court Nov. 5.