Hazlet Contractor Charged With Failing To Build Home For Sandy Victim

A Hazlet home improvement contractor is facing 10 years in a New Jersey state prison following his arrest on Wednesday after he failed to begin work building a new home for a Union Beach homeowner, despite receiving $120,000, announced Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

Edward Capriani, 43, of Line Road in Hazlet, is charged with one count of second degree Theft after an investigation by the Monmouth County Superstorm Sandy Fraud Task Force found that he failed to start work building a new home for a Union Beach homeowner whose home was destroyed by the storm.

Capriani is currently being held in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, Freehold Township, on $150,000 bail with no 10 percent option, as set by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley.

Capriani, doing business under the name “Edward Wohanka,” entered into a contract with the Union Beach homeowner in November 2013, to build a new home at an agreed upon cost of $225,000.

In December 2013, the victim remitted a $30,000 check to Capriani, who cashed the check at a check cashing facility in Hazlet.

In March 2014, Capriani took an additional $15,000 check from the victim, cashed the check at a check cashing facility in Hazlet.

In June 2014, while suspended, Capriani asked the victim for another $75,000, and the victim gave him three separate checks: a $30,000 check, a $20,000 check, and a $25,000 check that were all cashed at the check cashing facility in Hazlet. To date, Capriani has not broken ground on the project and did not return any of the money.

This case is being prosecuted by Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Andrew S. Fried of the Financial Crimes and Public Corruption Bureau, and Director of the Superstorm Sandy Fraud Task Force.