Housing and Home Renovation

Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Texas say Christopher and Raquelle Judge of Fort Worth have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after running a home‑construction and renovation scam through their company Judge DFW LLC from August 2020 to January 2023. The couple used social media to market themselves as a one‑stop shop for custom architecture, design and construction — with clients comparing their pitch to HGTV’s Chip and Joanna Gaines — while falsely claiming Christopher was an experienced architect and offering below‑market bids to win contracts. Prosecutors say they took installment payments from more than 40 clients across six Texas counties for at least 24 projects, left homes partially built or uninhabitable, and diverted roughly $4.8 million into their business account to cover their own mortgage, living expenses and even plastic surgery. In Runaway Bay alone, Christopher Judge racked up 424 code‑enforcement citations before the FBI took over the case, and victims describe being pushed into bankruptcy and skipping Christmas for their children as money vanished and projects stalled. Christopher faces up to 20 years and Raquelle up to five years in federal prison at separate sentencings later this year, underscoring both the scale of contractor fraud that flourished during the pandemic housing boom and the limits of local code enforcement before federal agents stepped in.