He promised that his team of lawyers could repair credit reports — even bankruptcy.
But his New York City office, federal investigators said they learned, was really just a mail post office box.
And while hundreds of hopeful customers paid Joseph A. Graziola a total of $120,000 to help them, authorities said, the help never came.
Graziola, 35, of Lititz, was indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office on three counts of mail fraud for allegedly operating a fraudulent credit-repair business. Graziola could not be reached for comment this week.
According to court documents, prosecutors allege Graziola made false claims about his business's ability to repair credit and falsely claimed that his business was staffed with lawyers when it was not.
The business, called Bad Credit B Gone, claimed to repair individuals' credit.
Graziola and others acting at his direction, prosecutors said, falsely represented that BCBG "unlike other credit-repair companies, was a law firm in New York" that could delete unfavorable items from customers' credit reports.
Fees ranged from $500 for individuals to $750 for married couples.
A website featuring a picture of the alleged firm, according to court documents, claimed it had lawyers and paralegals. Prosecutors said the business claimed it was managed by an attorney.
But, prosecutors said, Graziola never employed any attorneys.
From May 2003 to January 2006, Graziola devised a scheme to get money by false and fraudulent pretenses, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors allege Graziola falsely claimed to have helped hundreds of thousands of customers repair their credit, saying that he had already successfully deleted hundreds of thousands of credit items.
Graziola also apparently received $850 in checks from three customers through the mail at a location in New York City's Rockefeller Center.
If convicted of the charges, Graziola would face a sentence of up to 5 years in prison and up to $750,000 in fines, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The Federal Trade Commission also charged Graziola's business in January 2006 with making false or misleading statements.
Also, the FTC accused the business of violating the Credit Repair Organizations Act for requiring advance payment for credit-repair services and for making false statements.
At that time, authorities ordered him to stop making misrepresentations with regard to the credit-repair business.
Consumers who have questions can call the Federal Trade Commission at (877) FTC-HELP, log on to the consumer division of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office at www.attorneygeneral.gov or call them at 787-3391.