State refuses to renew license until probe closed
By Glenn Smith
Pero
Troubled cleaning company operator Edward Pero can no longer work as a contractor in South Carolina while state officials investigate whether he lied on a licensing application about past criminal convictions, a labor official said this week.
Pero, owner of defunct Atlantic Air Restoration Services in Mount Pleasant, allowed his state contractor license to lapse Oct. 31 and officials will not issue a new one until the probe is completed, said Jim Knight, communications director for the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
Investigators are trying to determine if Pero, a convicted sex offender, deliberately misled the state by failing to list prior criminal convictions on a licensing application he submitted in December, Knight said. If so, Pero could be permanently banned from working as a contractor in the Palmetto State, Knight said.
Previous Stories
Cleaning company leaves dirty trail; Owner bounces from state to state after businesses fail and customers, workers complain, published 10/26/08
High-profile company shuts down; Atlantic Air touted mold protection; workers unpaid, published 09/24/08
The state launched its investigation in response to inquiries from The Post and Courier about Pero, who has left a string of failed businesses and consumer complaints in his wake along the East Coast during the past decade. He already is banned from operating carpet and air duct cleaning companies in Massachusetts and New York as a result of complaints about unscrupulous business activities, authorities said.
Pero, 42, denied having any judgments, claims or disciplinary actions against him or his companies when he applied for a South Carolina contractor's license. He also denied being arrested or convicted of a crime.
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Pero is a registered sex offender in New York and Florida, having pleaded guilty in 1993 to first-degree attempted sodomy against a 28-year-old woman. Florida corrections records also indicate Pero was convicted of aggravated assault and fraud in the late 1980s.
Pero could not be reached for comment Tuesday. His home phone numbers in New York and Florida are unlisted, and his cell phone has been disconnected.
During his stay here, Pero added two more casualties to his resume with the September closures off Atlantic Air,an air duct cleaning business, and Envirokleen, a carpet cleaning company. Pero left behind stunned workers who say they are owed thousands of dollars in back wages and customers who fear they have been stiffed on work they paid for.
Melissa E. Arellano said she and her husband spent $584 having the ducts at their Berkeley County home cleaned only to find them filled with dust when they flipped on the heat recently. With Atlantic Air's warranty worthless, they called in another company, which found they needed to spend $3,000 on a new system, she said.
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512c (anonymous) says...
I'm sorry, butt, sodomy with a 28 year old woman? Which was consented or not? How can someone be called a sex offender for sodomy with a grown person? I don't think this sounds constitutionally prudent?! Maybe slightly prurient, but still, one of those laws that is only there as a left Behind )(get it?)...
November 12, 2008 at 8:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Confuzzled (anonymous) says...
Has anyone read the various dumb (and funny) laws from different states ? Try this link for some good laughs : http://www.ahajokes.com/dumb_laws.html. Here is another link : http://www.dumblaws.com/
The one law about being allowed to beat your wife on the courthouse steps on Sundays (in SC) takes the cake ...
I have often wondered if any of these old laws are challenged in our modern day courts ?
November 12, 2008 at 9:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
512c (anonymous) says...
sad that we are so happy to ruin people, that we call buggery with consent illegal and crime. i think this culture is fed by ruined creatures. it needs misery to survive.
November 12, 2008 at 9:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
islandbenzbc (anonymous) says...
I don't care about this guy's sexual activities with consenting adults but his past business activities suggest that he is a crook...no license and ban him from SC! Some jail time might be in order too...
November 12, 2008 at 10:09 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
512c (anonymous) says...
jail? no, I think he needs a few good successes and some business training to help him manage his life more!
November 12, 2008 at 10:24 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ColdBud (anonymous) says...
512c, maybe I'm reading it wrong but I'd be willing to bet that "first-degree attempted sodomy against a 28-year-old woman" is the same thing as attempted rape. Maybe a lesser crime due to pleading guilty, but I'd bet it was an attempted rape if your got all of the facts.
If the P&C is going to put this much effort in to researching the back ground of an individual, they should share all of the facts so that the entire situation can be understood by it's readers.
If it was indeed attempted rape, he, as with all violent sex offenders, should have been put to death. If it was consensual sex, the law needs to be changed. Either way, the P&C needs to clear this up since they put only a portion of the information out there, leaving us to speculate.
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November 12, 2008 at 10:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
coahtrtaylor (anonymous) says...
ColdBud, I totally agree. I saw nowhere in this article that stated the 28 year old woman was a consenting participant in the sexual act committed. I am pretty sure you cannot be arrested and convicted of a sexual crime with a consenting adult. More than likely it was rape that had some trouble being prosecuted and was either pleaded down, or possibly multiple charges given to a jury that came back with this conviction. Overall the guy seems like a creep and a worthless SOB, so hopefully he is out of our state and will never be allowed to open or conduct business in any state. Looks like to me this guy is a perfect candidate for the three strikes law, although I am not certain which crimes all fall under that law.
November 12, 2008 at 11:21 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kontact (anonymous) says...
He could always be a lawyer-Contact the S.C. Supreme Court cause Im sure they would give him a chance. WOW
November 12, 2008 at 11:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Confuzzled (anonymous) says...
Islandbenzbc, I couldn't agree more. There are too many con artists in today's society that should not be allowed to continue to bilk unsuspecting homeowners out of their hard earned money. My husband does residential construction and I cannot tell you how many times he has been called by homeowners needing work done because they had already paid someone else to do the work and the work was not done properly or was not done at all. My husband's elderly aunt paid someone $16,000.00, up front, for a contractor to renovate her home in Goose Creek. The contractor showed up a couple of days then disappeared - leaving her deeply in debt and the work was never done. His aunt has yet to locate this contractor and cannot afford to hire anyone else to do the work now. The elderly, in particular, are being targeted and something definately needs to be done to stop this 'shoddy' kind of business.
In as much as Pero's previous charge of sodomy, I don't think this has anything to do with his work ethics. However, given his lack of ability to satisfy homeowners, he does not need a license and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and does NOT deserve the priviledge to hold a business license to deal with the public.
November 12, 2008 at 11:43 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Tides (anonymous) says...
There are tons of people doing business in Charleston County with no license to do so. Just look at all the small building contractors who go door to door with fliers.
I saw that the license building contractor sticker still has to be on a contractors vehicle. But Chas Co does nadda about issuing them or enforcing it.
My my all these people running around with no business license and cheating on their taxes. My my our government is worthless. My my they tax us to death so some government worker can get a paycheck just for generating needless computer data or paper work or the higher ups can be OVERPAID for nothing.
Sick of taxes. Sick of cheats. Sick of liars. Sick of crooks. Sick of horrible government and government employees. They need to knock off being so pretentious. If Law Enforcement did their jobs we would have many government workers in jail right now.
November 15, 2008 at 3:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Tides (anonymous) says...
Talk about old laws that NEVER are enforced. Adultry in SC is a crime! HAHA! Try taking out a warrant for your spouses arrest. The police have to do it. But they sure as hell won't! Neither will any judge. BUT it's the law! And it's still in effect. So law enforcers ought not to be LAW BREAKERS! HAHA!
November 15, 2008 at 3:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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