Virginia contractor accused of taking money for work never done

A Fairfax County, Virginia, contractor faces criminal charges for allegedly taking money from clients but never doing any work.

Dr. Stephanie Waggel, whose allegations are not part of the criminal charges, said she hired Scott Tripp of Capital Pro Services to remodel her Ashburn psychiatric practice. But he didn’t do a minute of construction work on a $100,000 project even after she sent the first two checks for $30,000, she said.

“There was picking of floors and picking of colors and getting really excited about things, but the employees told me that every time they would order something for the project, he would cancel it and keep the money,” Waggel said.

She said she and her father ended up doing the remodel themselves.

“I learned a lot from YouTube about how to use power tools,” she said.

A homeowner in Falls Church said they paid Tripp almost $30,000 to demolish and build a new garage. It was torn down, and some concrete was poured in a fashion they said was not up to code. Then no one ever returned.

And a Vienna family has hired a new contractor to build an addition to their home. They said they paid Capital Pro Services $53,000, but a search warrant affidavit filed in court by a detective says neither Tripp nor his company ever filed for a permit or did any work.

When the family demanded its money back, “Tripp advised he wired the refund … however the wire transfer number … proved to be fictitious,” investigators wrote in court documents.

The Falls Church and Vienna cases — along with one other — are the basis for six criminal charges filed against Tripp in late January, alleging contractor fraud and operating without a license.

Waggel’s case is being investigated in Loudoun County.

The Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation shows no contractor license for Scott Tripp nor Capital Pro Services. The license listed on the company website is for another construction and roofing company.

At Capitol Pro Services’ Chantilly office, News4 found letters spilling from the mailbox and the office locked up with UPS delivery notices stuck to the door. A neighboring tenant said he hasn’t seen anyone there since January.

Several of Tripp’s former employees said they’re owed money for paychecks never sent. One shared a video of the inside of the office when it was open last year. Construction there was never completed.

“I really thought I was building a business,” said Tarita Plomata, who said she was hired by Capitol Pro Services’ office director in March 2024.

She said she became frustrated when she’d start working on a project only to have Tripp put a halt to it.

“Wherever the money went, we don’t know,” Plomata said. “‘Cause we would have projects that he would have everything ready for. I would go ahead and do research, do whatever he told me to do.”

Ethan Topper said Tripp hired him as a salesman in August.

“He told me it is really easy to make $100K in your first year,” Topper said.

He said he already had some experience in construction but wanted to learn more.

“Our training consisted of watching YouTube videos on how to sell,” Topper said. “I was like, this isn’t really the training that I was looking for.”

He said he quit after only three months.

“I kind of started to think that this company was more of a joke than a reality,” Topper said.

He said he’s still owed his last paycheck and commissions.

A judgment in U.S. District Court shows Tripp previously led a company called Pritt Investment Partners LLC. Four former employees sued in 2022 after claiming the company failed to pay them for months of work. The court ordered Tripp to pay $235,000 out of a total $2.35 million judgment.

In 2020 and 2021, Tripp hired ASPIS Protection Services — a private security company — but stopped paying his bill, according to Fairfax County Circuit Court records. A judge ordered him to pay almost $324,000 plus attorney’s fees.

Waggel said she went to Tripp’s office three times to demand her money back.

“He was kind of in shock,” she said. “He turned all red. And so I said, ‘You said you’d give me my money.’ I mean, I have it in writing. He emailed me, ‘I will return your money.’ I’m here to get it. He said, ‘I don’t have a checkbook.’”

She said she’s never received her money back. She said she’s hopeful the pending criminal case will help bring a stop to Tripp’s business practices.

“I don’t really care one way or the other about jail, he just needs to stop the cycle of opening a new business and not paying people and not doing clients’ work, and then shutting it down, and starting the cycle over and over,” Waggel said.

News4 went to Tripp’s home in Marshall. He answered his doorbell camera, saying, “I have nothing to say about an active case.”

Tripp has not named an attorney to defend him in the upcoming criminal case. He’s been ordered to give the court a name next week. His preliminary hearing is set for May 6.

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