The owner and operator of a chain of Boston-area sober homes under the name “A Vision From God” has been arrested and indicted on 37 fraud-related charges.
Daniel Cleggett, 37, of Kingston, and Nicholas Espinosa, 37, of Randolph, were arrested Tuesday morning, according to federal court records, in connection with an indictment charging them each with 21 counts of wire fraud, six counts of money laundering, two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of mortgage fraud conspiracy, and one count of making false statements to a mortgage-lending business.
Cleggett — the owner of the business, which he founded in 2016, according to the indictment — was separately charged with four counts of wire fraud and two counts of making false statements to a mortgage-lending business.
U.S. District Magistrate Judge Paul Levenson released the pair after they came in for an initial appearance in federal court in Boston.
A Vision From God LLC, which Espinosa runs, operates nine separate sober homes with locations in Boston, Weymouth and Quincy that go under variations of the name Brady’s Place or Brady’s Retreat in multiple locations as well as under the names Lakeshore Retreat in Wakefield, Lambert House in Weymouth, and Seaver House in Boston, according to a list included in the indictment.
The fraud alleged in the indictment centers on a conspiracy to defraud the New York-based family trust paying for a client’s stay at the location “Brady’s Place” in Quincy, sometimes to the tune of $12,500 per month.
Another alleged fraud outlined in the indictment is that Cleggett purchased three homes in Boston and between October 2019 to December 2021 that he falsely claimed on paperwork would be used as residential homes but were actually used as sober living homes.
And, finally, the indictment alleges that Cleggett committed billing fraud through his other businesses — insulation contracting companies Green Save Energy, Environmental Construction Objective, Green Giants, and Insulation Situation — that participated in the Mass Save Program.
In particular, the indictment alleges that Cleggett through his Green Save Energy and Environmental Construction Objective companies received millions of dollars for residential insulation work from a lead vendor company under the Mass Save program but that for years he billed that vendor for permits that were never actually obtained — which got the companies kicked off the Mass Save Program.
So the feds say he started the later companies under straw owners to rejoin the program and eventually netted $954,443 in payments despite being banned from the program.
The charges each carry maximum possible sentences of decades in prison, with the longest maximum being 30 years in prison for making false statements to a mortgage lending business.
Judge Levenson scheduled the arraignment for June 7 at 11:30 a.m.