The Port St. Lucie Police Department (PSLPD) announced the arrest of a pool company owner on Thursday afternoon, accusing him of scamming 104 people out of more than $2.5 million.
According to investigators, 59-year-old George Galiszewski barely constructed three pools in 14 months and owes subcontractors $221,875.60. Racketeering, money laundering, misapplication of construction funds, first-degree grand theft, and aggravated white-collar crime are among the five felony allegations leveled against Galiszewski.
“He’s a liar. He was only interested in making money and didn’t care about the victims,” stated PSLPD Assistant Chief Leo Niemczyk.
Authorities said he did so through his firm, Pro Pool Builders, by failing to complete the 104 pools for which he was hired.
Phillip Everett, a Stuart native, was one of the casualties. “It makes me angry,” he said to CBS12 News. “In the end for us, it wound up costing us almost ($)25,000 more to get our pool completed than what our original contract was.”
According to Everett, he signed the deal with the corporation in June 2021, and work began a few months later in September. However, by April of the following year, he claims Galiszewski had vanished.
According to police, that’s when he shut down the business and the investigation began.
“They finally just quit showing up in April of (20)22,” Everett recounted. “The contract states that the pool be completed within 12 weeks of permitting; 12 weeks of when our permit was actually pulled, we had a hole in the ground, and that was it.”
When the red flags began to appear last year, CBS12 News met with another victim of this fraud, Rodger Clyne.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow knowing that I made a bad investment of $44,000 to have a hole dug,” he stated in the spring of 2022. “It’s just sickening, gut-wrenching.”
According to police, Galiszewski showed no remorse. “He took the victims’ money and ran to Costa Rica and the most expensive restaurants on the Treasure Coast,” he said.
Authorities claim he has victims from Martin to Indian River Counties on the Treasure Coast. Many of them regret not doing more research on this organization before employing them.
“Only completed 3 pools in all of that, so he couldn’t have had many referrals or references, didn’t have any history with the Better Business Bureau, and his quotes were quite a bit under market value, so I think there were plenty of red flags,” the deputy chief of staff said. “Just have to do your due diligence, it’s a shame that he took advantage of people.”
“Don’t be afraid to get on the internet and do some research,” Everett said. “There are specific building codes for pools and other structures.” Go do some research on them.”
One option to investigate a company is to search them with the Better Business Bureau.
Galiszewski, ironically, is being jailed in the St. Lucie County Jail on a $2.5 million bail, the same amount prosecutors claim he swindled from his victims.
The PSLPD was in charge of 64 victims, while the Martin County Sheriff’s Office was in charge of 29, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office was in charge of six, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office was in charge of four, and the Stuart Police Department was in charge of one.
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