S.F. Contractor Accused of Stiffing Workers Gets Slapped with Felony Charges

The People vs. Danny Ho. Literally.

​Criminal charges finally caught up to faux-contractor Danny Ho today when he was arraigned in Superior Court for allegedly posing as a contractor and not paying his workers.

Ho has a storied past among Bay Area day laborers dating back to 2008n when a band of angry protesters from La Raza Centro Legal stood at the front door of his North Beach home to confront him, according to news reports.

That was after three day laborers complained to the nonprofit that Ho had given them only $120 to divvy up after they did 10 days of work for him on a home in the Sunset District.

A mob holding posters that read "Pay Your Workers" followed Ho for four blocks; it was only then that he finally agreed to meet with the stiffed workers in La Raza's offices.

But apparently Ho never reformed his ways. This morning, he appeared in court to answer to a list of felony charges, including falsely impersonating a contractor, stealing from a client, demanding an excessive down payment, and failing to properly compensate the day laborers he had hired to do a remodeling job in the Ingleside District.

According to the district attorney's office, a homeowner had paid Ho $30,000 as a down payment last year to convert an entertainment room into two bedrooms. But Ho allegedly abandoned the project halfway through.

He also never paid the three workers he had hired, let alone buy workers' compensation insurance for them. The rabbit hole just keeps going: Ho  allegedly gave the homeowner a card bearing another contractor's license number and business name -- a contractor who had not given permission for him to do so. 
 
You can check up on your own contractors to ensure they are licensed here. Should be interesting. 

Photo courtesy of El Tecolote

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