A major homebuilder in the region accused of has been criminally charged with falsifying an engineer's seal on building inspection certificates, a type of fraud building inspectors called highly unusual.
Altieri Homes Inc., a Columbia-based company that has built hundreds of homes in Howard, Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Carroll counties, faces nine misdemeanor counts. The company president, Daren Altieri, was separately charged with the same nine counts.
The combined charges, filed Wednesday by the Howard County state's attorney, carry a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison and possible fines totaling $6,000. The charges include three counts each of using the license of another; false entry in a public record and false endorsement of documents.
Greig Altieri, vice president of the 10-year-old company, said he was baffled by the charges. "It's kind of ridiculous to go after a company on something of this magnitude," he said. "I mean, [President Clinton] lies under oath and he gets away with it."
Altieri said the county was unfairly picking on his company for reasons he did not understand. "At the end of all this, I wouldn't be surprised if Howard County found itself in court, because it's intentionally trying to harm a small business. It's personality-driven."
Earlier this year, the company paid civil fines of $2,100 after a Howard building inspector discovered five suspicious documents.
The Department of Inspections, Licensing and Permits, which issued the civil citations, alerted the state's attorney's office to the case, said John Dreisch, chief of inspections and enforcement.
Dreisch characterized the falsifications as "the old copy-machine, Wite-Out system."
Michael Evans, director of Howard's Department of Inspections, Licensing and Permits, said cases of falsified engineer certificates are rare. "It's a fairly sacred document."
The certifications in question had to with inspections of footings, the concrete poured into the ground on which to set the foundation for a house.
Builders are required to get up to 10 different inspection certificates for a new house. Evans said it was not uncommon for construction to move faster than the certification process, which depends on the schedules of county inspectors. In such cases, the county asks the builder to provide documentation, verified by an engineer, that the structure meets county standards.
