Retired architect Gene Cravillion hasn’t practiced architecture since August 2022. The 91-year-old suffers from dementia and lives in a North Naples assisted-living facility. 

Yet more than 400 plans bearing his state-registered architectural seal have been submitted to the Collier County Building Plan Review & Inspection Division since then; he ostensibly wrote letters to the county last November and December affirming his work; and his license was renewed in November for two years. Letters were signed and sealed by Cravillion on his supposed letterhead — and someone posing as Cravillion inspected work on at least one home and attended a county hearing. 

“With his dementia, he has no idea this is going on,” Cravillion’s son, Tom, a design professional, said in an interview, adding his father had worked in the past with James D. Allen and Octavio “Tavi” Sarmiento’s planning and permitting company, not with others who were cited by the state. “All these ended up being faked … It’s ridiculous. He’s been in assisted living since 2022. 

“Sometimes what they’d do is, he’d either get transported over to their office to review it or they would bring a plan in to him and he’d look at it. We saw that he no longer had income. No one was coming,” Tom Cravillion said. “His dementia was so bad about a year ago, he stopped [working].” 

The exact number of properties affected isn’t known, but an investigation by The Naples Press shows at least one North Naples homeowner’s certificate of occupancy was revoked 21 months after it was issued; many were hit with stop-work orders; lawsuits are pending; and several firms were called before code enforcement boards and the county Contractors’ Licensing Board. 

Among them was Nova Homes of South Florida, which used Dave Wainscott Designs, a firm connected to many cases. Collier has revoked Nova Homes’ permit-pulling privileges. Nova Homes told The Naples Press it’s also a victim of the fraud. 

Wainscott did not return emails or calls. State Department of Business & Professional Regulation records show Wainscott has a history of unlicensed activity. He worked in the same office building as Nova Homes, on Beck Boulevard, but has since left and his DWD Design Inc. office was taken over by an employee, an engineer. 

“I’m not certain what the driver is, other than just greed,” engineer John McCormick, director of the county Building Plan Review & Inspection Division, told the 16-member Development Services Advisory Committee this month, adding the numbers involved — they flagged 400 permits last month — continue to grow. 

Last month, McCormick told the DSAC someone accessed Cravillion’s password to use his seal, which he called “substantial fraud … As a director, it’s my responsibility to keep this from happening again.” 

Florida statutes require registered architects to use seals prescribed by the Florida Board of Architecture. Digital seals are used to verify the authenticity of architectural documents, establish an architect’s identity and show safety-code compliance, structural integrity and adherence to local, state and national standards. 

Hundreds more permit applications were submitted to Naples and Marco Island building departments and the DBPR alerted the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which were asked to join investigations by the Florida Board of Architecture & Interior Design and criminal investigations by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, Marco Island and Naples police departments. 

DBPR records show it mailed 24 Naples design professionals and firms cease-and-desist letters on Jan. 22 about “unlicensed activity,” warning them to stop using Cravillion’s seal. 

Collier plan reviewers must scrutinize about 200,000 permits issued since August 2022, McCormick told the DSAC. 

But the county’s software isn’t set up to flag design professionals and alert affected designers, builders and homeowners, and “we don’t have the manpower. 

“That’s a huge Achilles heel for us, because it’s much easier to search by certain design professionals and be able to pull up permits,” he added. “Right now, the only way we can do it is by [applicant] name.” 

Affected homeowners and contractors must hire a new architect or engineer and re-submit those permit applications. 

McCormick is working with the County Manager’s Office on how to proceed, and hopes to upgrade the software and hire others to conduct the search so it doesn’t affect daily permit work. County records show 4,143 total permit applications, including 465 for building permits, were submitted in January, and 4,313 in February, including 481 for building permits. 

“My first obligation is to get the current work out the door. I cannot let this hold that work up,” McCormick said. 

Marco Island building officials declined to provide records or specify the number of stop orders and properties, saying it’s exempt under Florida’s Sunshine Act due to the ongoing investigation. Naples officials said they found three active permits involving Cravillion, placed one on hold, issued two stop-work orders and are still reviewing other permits. Collier County provided The Naples Press with 189 affected permits through Jan. 31 and are continuing their review. The Collier County Sheriff’s Office referred questions to the FBI, which didn’t respond to emails and calls seeking comment. 

On March 25, county Growth Management & Development Director Jamie French updated the Board of County Commissioners on the investigation, saying the county’s only involvement is to find the sealed documents and turn them over to the state. The county qualifies the license with the state when a permit application is submitted, he said, and again before issuing a certificate of occupancy and the county building official doesn’t believe there were willful construction violations. 

“This is a licensing dilemma that is 100% controlled by the state,” French said, adding homeowners and their project managers are responsible. 

But if there is fraud, he said, the sheriff’s office and Contractors’ Licensing Board would handle that to ensure a criminal conviction is even more painful and it would never happen again. Although the state doesn’t require the county to track projects by engineers and architects, he said Collier will be using software now to ensure this won’t recur. 

The importance of a seal 

An architect’s license requires years of work experience, education and a lengthy, difficult examination that takes days. As a result, some don’t sit for the exam after earning a degree in architecture, opting instead to open design firms and work with certified architects. 

Experts said stamp or seal fraud involving stolen stamps and signatures endangers the public and governments that rely on the seal and signature, diverts income and affects an architect’s professional reputation. 

The seal assures structural integrity. Architects are responsible for overseeing design, construction and project-team coordination throughout the process. It’s unethical and illegal to take credit for design work that wasn’t done. 

By law, residential projects — single- and two-family homes and townhouses — aren’t required to be signed and sealed by an architect, said architect Greg Burke, vice chair of the Florida Board of Architecture & Interior Design and a member of the Northeast Florida Builders Association. However, he said, plans involving a home’s structural components must be signed and sealed by an architect or engineer. They cannot review drawings after completion. 

“There are supposed to be safeguards all along the way,” he said. “If they are signing and sealing them, they have to be in ‘responsible control’ of the project, which means from day one, you’re the one writing the contract, you’re the one taking meeting notes, you’re the one meeting with the clients — and that’s what a lot of these contractors try to get themselves out of doing. They want to do all that upfront stuff for themselves.” 

If an architect is hired to oversee the project from start to finish, including construction administration, during construction, the architect is available to review what the contractor is building to ensure everything in the design is included in the build-out. 

But building departments statewide are having difficulties finding plan reviewers, often due to many areas’ cost of living, and many are hesitant to file a complaint. 

“In some cases, they will stop the permit process,” Burke said. “It all depends on how aware they are at the time — and quite honestly, the building departments are overburdened. It’s not always easy to determine if a set of drawings was legally signed and sealed.” 

Violators face local and state hearings and hefty fines, as well as criminal charges, jail and prison time — and restitution to victims. 

DBPR flags unlicensed activity 

Since DBPR alerted local governments in January, McCormick said his employees discovered three more professionals’ seals are being used fraudulently; he declined to name them, but contended DBPR was slow to get the word out, allowing hundreds of permits to be approved. As a result, the county is focusing first on active permits. 

On Jan. 22, DBPR sent 11 Naples architects, designers, builders and other design professionals and 13 firms cease-and-desist letters about unlicensed activity. They must provide the architectural board’s investigator with evidence; she did not return calls and emails. Some who were cited told The Naples Press they were unknowingly involved after hiring certain permitting or design companies. 

They didn’t return calls from The Naples Press. Only three who were cited by the state did. 

James D. Allen, Cravillion’s former partner, said he worked with Cravillion and paid him in person when he came to his office. Allen provided the investigator with records detailing payments to Cravillion and two architects he’s worked with since Cravillion’s health declined. He said permitting employees advised him not to work with Cravillion anymore due to work Sarmiento turned in using his seal. 

However, he said, one project that began three years ago with a general contractor needed revisions, and Cravillion did that in 2023. 

“He may not have been technically practicing in ’23, but he was well enough to come … to the office and meet with [the contractor],” Allen said, adding a church friend drove Cravillion. “I paid Gene a percentage of the deal for a new project and $300 for every revision … I have no clue how all these bandits got hold of his license or who renewed it.” 

He said someone would have pocketed the architectural charges and passed that cost on to homeowners. 

General contractor Alba Melissa Perez-Toscano, of Toscano Group, provided the investigator with details involving a pending 2023 pool design handled by Sarmiento of ASSA (Agencias Sarmiento S.A.), whom she’d worked with for years. 

“She thought I was working as a team, but I just provided everything to ASSA,” Perez-Toscano said of the state investigator’s questions. “I tried to call [Sarmiento], but I think he closed everything. He doesn’t respond … I got my license recently and the city told me to not use him because he’s a red flag, so I stopped.” 

Archie BIM Design owner Diego Bustamante Verdejo was unsure how he was involved and doesn’t know others who were cited. 

“I work solely as a draftsman for Majestic Homes Builders, and my responsibilities are limited to drafting certain technical plans for this office,” Bustamante said through a translator. “I do not provide architectural services or sign any plans … The office I work for only compensates me for my drafting work. They are responsible for submitting the plans for review and signing through another company.” 

And Juan C. Robalino, who operates architectural firm JC Robalino Inc., said he provided information to the state board investigator, attorney Melissa Minacci, last month to prove his firm contacted Cravillion in July 2020 and Octavio Sarmiento from ASSA (Agencias Sarmiento S.A.) “facilitated the digital-signature process.” 

“This plan was actually the second revision of a project Gene initially signed in July 2020, with the first revision occurring in November 2021,” Robalino said, noting it’s the sole reason for the state board investigation into his firm. 

In his letter to the investigator, Robalino told her that on Nov. 28, 2021, his firm provided new digitally signed plans that were reviewed and approved by Cravillion to address county comments about the project’s pool building — and  ASSA provided that file to the county. On Sept. 25, 2022, the developers requested a revision to accommodate mailboxes, he said, so his firm contacted Cravillion, who told him to ask Sarmiento for “assistance with the digital signature.”  

Robalino said ASSA handled the digital signature and billing for Cravillion. 

“We were unaware that Gene had stopped working or, worse, had been in a retirement home,” Robalino said. “We were absolutely appalled when we heard about what had been going on.” 

It’s not the first time 

The fraudulent use of Cravillion’s seal began after reports to the Marco Island Building Department of Nova Homes and Wainscott using architect Leonard LaForest’s seal. The longtime Marco Island architect’s license was suspended for unlicensed activity in October 2019 and he died Nov. 15, 2021. But his seal was still being used. 

“He apparently was signing it from the grave,” said Denise Zervos, a Marco Island homeowner whose plans were signed and sealed by LaForest — as an engineer. 

Due to that and numerous other building problems, she severed ties with Nova Homes and hired another builder to finish her Old Marco Lane home. She’s in litigation with Nova Homes. 

On Jan. 9, 2023, Marco Island city officials advised builders, designers, homeowners and others on its website and Facebook that they learned on Dec. 29, 2022, that LaForest had died. 

“Most troubling is that we have continued to receive plans signed and sealed using Mr. LaForest’s credentials after his death,” the post said, adding they alerted law enforcement agencies and contacts for projects signed and sealed using his credentials. 

“These projects must have their plans reviewed, if necessary revised, and signed and sealed by a licensed design professional,” it said. “All projects currently under construction with plans signed and sealed using Mr. LaForest’s credentials after his death must stop until their plans are updated by a new licensed design professional.” 

This January, Marco Island posted a similar alert about the fraudulent use of Cravillion’s seal. Collier and Miami-Dade did the same, but Miami-Dade listed firms involved and county officials said its investigation found no applications or permits in its unincorporated areas were affected. Collier’s site also provides links to help homeowners verify licenses and certifications. 

“It started with LaForest and when they got caught using LaForest, they thought, ‘Oh, who else can we use that we’ve worked with?’ and they used Gene Cravillion’s stamp,” Zervos said. 

“What bothers me most is: Did anyone look over any of those plans? You could have hundreds of homes out there that have structural plans stamped. Who knows if an actual architect has ever really looked at these. It scares me. 

“The county’s not going to check … It’s stamped by LaForest as an engineer,” she said of her plans. “They assume the plan is stamped because there’s an engineer stamp with a date on it. They assume that engineer looked over everything.” 

Her plans are now stamped by a licensed engineer in Naples. “I don’t even know if he looked at our plans or not,” Zervos said. “The only thing I checked was to make sure he was breathing, because I had my doubts.” 

Her home still isn’t complete. “I would have never used [Wainscott] again,” she said of the LaForest issue. “I would have said, ‘You put me out of business for 70-some homes.’ I need to know that my architect and my engineer are solid, and I would have gone somewhere else — even if it cost more. That’s what you do as a builder.” 

Monika Gatto, whose certificate of occupancy was revoked after 21 months, went through arbitration with Nova Homes due to numerous problems. But because there was an existing CO at the time, she lost the arbitration. Now she’s fighting to reopen the case because the CO was allegedly based on fraud. She started investigating, reported the fraud and testified against Nova Homes before the county Contractors’ Licensing Board, when Nova Homes founder Frank Arcia told the CLB that Cravillion was in attendance. 

After what occurred with LaForest, Pacheco, Arcia’s son-in-law, sent an email to customers saying they were “blindsided” and that their design firm, a well-respected company used by many, assured them they were “unaware of staff actions” and it wouldn’t happen again. 

Yet Gatto noted they continued to use Wainscott. 

“Nova Homes, Frank Arcia and Eric Pacheco were aware of the situation and continued using him intentionally,” Gatto said. “They ‘brought him’ to my home and then pretended Mr. Cravillion was here. Mr. Pacheco was very aware of the situation and sent letters to Marco Island customers, but customers in Naples were not notified.” 

Several letters to Collier County in November involving Gatto’s home, allegedly written, signed and sealed by Cravillion, are on his letterhead, which lists Sarmiento’s email and address. They say Cravillion’s associates were at her home for an X-ray inspection and he asked the county to reissue the CO.  

Until a few weeks ago, Gatto said, some county permits were open and passing inspections “despite Nova Homes being aware they were signed with a fraudulent stamp.” 

In a statement to The Naples Press, Pacheco said they were alerted to the fraudulent seal on Jan. 8, when Collier’s deputy building official provided a memo from the state investigator. 

Nova Homes then terminated its relationship with Wainscott and hired an architectural and engineering firm to resolve permit issues “as expeditiously as possible.” 

“We expect our partners and subcontractors to uphold the highest standards and strictly adhere to all legal and regulatory requirements,” Pacheco said. “Wainscott Designs failed to meet these obligations, compromising the trust we placed in them, and we are taking this matter very seriously.” 

More information is available at bit.ly/ cccravillionalert and bit.ly/marcocravillionalert. If your permit application is stamped by Gene Cravillion after August 2022, contact the state board’s investigator, melissa@manausalaw.com. 

Cited for unlicensed activity

The state Department of Business & Professional Regulation sent the following designers and firms — all from Naples — cease-and-desist letters, warning them to stop using Gene Cravillion’s architectural seal. Those marked with an asterisk told The Naples Press they were unknowingly involved or had worked with Cravillion through ASSA, while Cravillion’s former partner said he met with Cravillion in person and paid him in person. The investigation is continuing and more firms may be added. 

• DAVE WAINSCOTT DESIGNS and David Wainscott
• ASSA DESIGNS and owner Octavio Sarmiento, who used to work with Gene Cravillion
• * JAMES D. ALLEN, Cravillion’s former partner
• SP DRAFTING LLC and owner Santiago Pinilla
• DRAFTING DESIGN OF NAPLES
• ARGON
• * TOSCANO GROUP LLC and owner Alba Melissa Perez-Toscano
• * JC ROBALINO INC. and Juan Carlos Robalino
• KGT BUILDERS and co-owner Gregory Ulrich
• NESTOR GARCIA DESIGN and Nestor Garcia; his Efficient Builders LLC wasn’t cited
• TRU DRAFTING & DESIGN INC. and owner Isaiah Trujillo, who also goes by TRU Architecture & Design
• * ARCHIE BIM DESIGNS and Diego Bustamante Verdejo
• A1 SERVICES CONSTRUCTION & Renovation and its president, Luis Adrian Sanchez; his A1 Services & More wasn’t cited
• THINLINE GROUP LLC and owner Carlos Barbato

Source: State Department of Business & Professional Regulation 

The county Building Plan Review & Inspection Division’s list of 189 permits showed three more firms: 

• GBDrafting Designs Corp., owned by Jael Ospina 

• JArchiTEC Design & Drafting 

• TLG LLC