BRIDGEPORT–STRATFORD — Three guilty pleas in September and October have outlined how contractors and a former general manager diverted money from Success Village, a 924-unit housing cooperative whose residents depend on shared finances for services including heat and hot water.
The latest plea came October 5, when Richard J. Messina of Trumbull admitted conspiracy to commit wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Vernon D. Oliver in Hartford, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Contractor Carmine Gentile pleaded guilty September 14, and former general manager Charles A. Pitcher followed September 15. All three admitted the same conspiracy charge. These are earlier pleas, not arrests announced October 19.
In its October 5 account, the U.S. Attorney’s Office described a scheme running approximately June 2022 through September 2024. Contractors submitted invoices for unperformed work or inflated prices, with some charges carrying unreasonable markups and no competitive bidding. A portion of the resulting payments was directed back to Pitcher and another participant.
Prosecutors said the cooperative paid Umbrella Mechanical approximately $2.63 million and RJM Mechanical about $99,414 during the conspiracy. They identified $546,000 diverted to Pitcher and the other participant. Those figures distinguish contractor payments from diverted funds; they are not interchangeable measures of the cooperative’s losses.
The September 18 federal release described Pitcher’s position and additional payments. He had been appointed general manager in May 2022 for an annual fee of $250,000 while also controlling separate businesses. Prosecutors said he received at least $232,479 in purported consulting payments without providing services in return, in addition to diverted vendor funds.
The plea agreements include substantial financial obligations. The federal releases say Pitcher agreed to restitution of at least $2.5 million, while Gentile and Messina each agreed to at least $1.5 million. Forfeiture obligations are separate. These individual agreements should not simply be added together and presented as a final, independently established total loss or as money already returned to residents.
The case concerns more than bookkeeping. CT Mirror’s October 19 account reports that residents lost heat during winter 2024 and that Bridgeport and Stratford officials subsequently sought a court-appointed attorney to take over the complex’s finances. The reporting illustrates the stakes for a community of 96 residential buildings; it does not establish that every service failure had a single cause.
The October 5 federal announcement described the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation and U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigation as ongoing. The reviewed releases placed the defendants on bond pending sentencing; no later sentencing outcome was established in this review. This report does not identify an unnamed participant or predict additional charges.