SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The CEO of a Chula Vista company that promoted itself as a one-stop shop for ADU solutions has filed for bankruptcy.
Jose Frausto has approximately $3.9 million in total liabilities, according to his March court filing.
Jose, who also goes by the name Joe, was the CEO of Multitaskr, a tiny home company that abruptly shut its doors last year.
The business is accused of taking at least $15 million from more than 100 customers without delivering the accessory dwelling units, Team 10 reported in January.
“Their people are smooth… They'd bring designers in. They'd ask us for wish lists. They'd meet with us whenever we'd ask and that's what pulled us in,” said Stephanie Bongiorno, who hired Multitaskr with her partner Betsy Leary, in June 2023 to build an ADU.
The granny flat was meant to give the couple an affordable opportunity to spend more time with their granddaughter in Bonita. It was going to be placed in their son’s backyard.
But after giving Multitaskr $79,000, the couple said they still have nothing to show for the money and claim the company stopped answering their calls last year.
“It has ruined our trust in people. It's questioned our judgment because we trusted them. We chose them and they failed at every level and we didn't catch it soon enough,” Leary said.
Frausto didn’t return Team 10’s requests for comment for this story. He also didn’t respond to a certified letter we sent to his house before our story on the business aired in January.
More than 100 people are suing Multitaskr and 10 different lenders who worked with the company. Bongiorno and Leary are not involved in litigation against the company.
Those suing Multitaskr allege the company fraudulently obtained loans for ADUs it never built.
The customers who hired the company now have a “devastating” financial burden and are on the hook for the loans, according to one lawsuit filed last November.
“Multitaskr and Frausto have received a windfall, and fraudulently so, at the sole expense of the plaintiffs,” states a lawsuit from two active-duty military members.
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The company and Frausto denied allegations of fraud, conspiracy and elder abuse in a court filing last year that blamed unnamed third parties.
“If plaintiffs were damaged, the damage was caused, in whole or in part, by the acts of third-parties other than these answering defendants,” a response for Multitaskr and Frausto says.
In Frausto’s bankruptcy filing, he stated he loaned ‘Multitaskr Construction’ approximately $69,000 from his personal account in May 2024 to help fund business operations.
It’s not clear when his financial troubles started, but the entrepreneur has sold several designer items and a car to generate cash, according to his filing.
The items he’s sold include:
- 2017 Maserati (Sold for $19,000)
- Chanel handbag (Sold for $3,600)
- Christian Dior handbag (Sold for $1,800)
- Prada handbag (Sold for $1,100)
- Louis Vuitton handbag (Sold for $800)
- Gucci wallet and shoes (Sold for $430)
Frausto estimated he has between 100 and 199 creditors he owes money to and stated his assets range between $50,000 - $100,000.
In May, the Contractors State License Board ordered Multitaskr’s license to be revoked. The decision will become effective on June 16, said board spokeswoman Katherine White.
She noted Multitaskr’s license is currently suspended and expired and said the business cannot contract.
White said two complaints against the company helped support an accusation to revoke the company’s license.
In the April accusation, an investigator with the board alleges Frausto “made excuses” after failing to make monthly rent to homeowners who hired Multitaskr.
The company agreed to pay the Poway residents the estimated rental value of their ADU for each month the project was delayed.
The homeowners gave Multitaskr over $424,000 for the ADU and eventually the company stopped communicating with the customers after abandoning the project, according to the state’s accusation.
“Multitaskr abandoned the Poway project without legal excuse, diverted or misappropriated funds received from the homeowners, committed willful or fraudulent acts injuring the homeowner, made substantial misrepresentations in the procurement of the contract and made false promises to influence, persuade, or induce the homeowners to enter into the Poway project contract,” the investigator wrote.
Leary and Bongiorno aren’t sure if they’ll ever get their money back and said they feared losing even more cash if they hired a lawyer to sue the company. They spent over a year living in the guest room of their son’s house while waiting for the granny flat to be built before moving into a mobile home park.
They are sharing their story to protect other people in the market for an ADU.
“I just hope that people will learn from our mistake,” Bongiorno said.
Ahren Tiller, the bankruptcy attorney who filed Frausto’s case, declined to comment when contacted by Team 10.
The investigator for the Contractors State License Board said Multitaskr didn’t return his calls, emails and certified mail and concluded the company failed to cooperate with the investigation.
Team 10 Investigative Reporter Austin Grabish can be reached at austin.grabish@10news.com
