Mark John Melchiori is a first-rate example of an individual who believed he was above ethics. What he didn’t count on was that his unethical choices would lead to consequences; not the least of which is a nine-year jail sentence.
The Ends-Means Problem
Melchiori suffered from the classic “Ends-Means” conundrum. He wanted the Hollywood lifestyle with its glitz and glamor, but he didn’t have the means to get there. What he did have was a construction company and instead of building homes, he decided it was more profitable to build fraud.
According to multiple news sources, the owner of Melchiori Construction Company admitted guilt to “one count of felony diversion of construction funds, one count of felony prevailing wage fraud, and one count of felony unlawful money transmission.”
What has really sunk him was the amount of money he took from clients to perpetuate a lavish lifestyle. It put him in the category of California’s “aggravated white-collar crime enhancement” laws which kicks in around $100,000. In Melchiori’s case, he lived his lifestyle to the tune of essentially stealing more than a half-million dollars.
It is ironic that Melchiori (wanting the Hollywood high-life) misappropriated a great deal of money from a Hollywood film director, Robert Zemeckis. The type of man Melchiori wanted so desperately to emulate. Zemeckis paid Melchiori $500,000 to remodel his home. It was the last time that Zemeckis saw his money. It was Zemeckis who filed charges against the construction firm.
Over time, Melchiori misappropriated more than $10 million in client fees to enable him to buy a fancy home, expensive cars and to stage lavish parties. Melchiori got away with his fraud in the short run by failing to pay or grossly underpaying his subcontractors. As with any fraudulent snowball rolling down the unethical mountain because of Melchiori’s fraud, the Zemeckis property was hit with subcontractor liens. The damages weren’t just a half-million, but closer to $1 million.
As the case of fraud was exposed, it led to other findings. The District Attorney’s Office discovered that the construction firm had also been “underpaying his workers on public works projects.”
He was able to get away with it by juggling the books. Underpaying in one area to create surpluses in another in order to fuel his lifestyle. Melchiori will “enjoy” many years behind bars to determine if his ends-means problem was worth it.
What Happened Here?
Fraudulent behavior invariably requires three elements and, in this case, it was quite clear that Melchiori displayed all three.
The simplest of the three elements to analyze in this case is need. Melchiori loved money and what it could do for him. He loved what it could bring him and who he could impress. Money was his power and money gave him all of the trappings of success without actually having to do the work to satisfy that success. It is a fleeting “drug,” and the problem is an unethical man like Melchiori can never have enough. The more someone like that has, the more he wants.
Rationalization always plays a major role in fraud and from what I can see, Melchiori had at least two areas of rationalization. The first, and most obvious, is that he rationalized people such as Robert Zemeckis were rich and entitled, just ripe for the picking. They have the money he wanted, and in his mind, the money was unlimited. However, as troubling (if not more so) is how he viewed the subcontractors. Did he see them as stepping stones or the “little people?” Were there also racial biases in his thinking? I cannot definitively say so, but I would not discount it.
Where was the sense of oversite here? Melchiori played on the opportunity to defraud his clients because his behavior was enabled. His lavish parties, fancy cars and nice home gave the impression that he was successful. Responding to an impression without meaningful due-diligence is as much on the victim as the perpetrator.
Enjoying cracked crab and champagne at a party is much different than looking up reviews and talking to past clients. Melchiori, a master of fraud, counted on that. For a while, it worked.
LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS!
You know nothing about this man. Nothing about this case. And yet you still feel qualified to write about it. Don’t believe everything you read, Chuck. The justice system isn’t so just.