A grand jury in Knox County has indicted the owner of a former midcoast contracting business for theft by deception.
According to the indictment, 56-year-old Malcolm Stewart allegedly led 57 consumers to pay more than $400,000 for home construction projects that he knew he wasn’t able to complete.
The indictment says in many of the cases, Stewart did no work, or performed “only a minimal amount of substandard work.”
The Maine Attorney General’s office says Stewart closed down the business two years ago and left Maine for South Carolina.
A court issued a warrant for Stewart’s arrest.