Fraudulent contractor faces federal charges

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - A man at the center of several WSAZ investigations is now facing federal charges.

Robert Eugene Jones was arrested in January in Putnam County for charges stemming from an incident in Lincoln County, where he is accused of taking more than $22,000 for repairs he never made. He has been held in the Western Regional Jail ever since.

He’s also facing charges in Kanawha, Lewis, Lincoln and Putnam counties.

According to court documents, Jones was indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court for the southern district of West Virginia on four counts of bank fraud and six counts of aggravated identity theft.

The West Virginia Attorney General’s Office has been fighting a civil lawsuit against Jones in Putnam County, where a judge ordered the website and contact information for Jones business be removed from the internet pending ongoing litigation.

Jones has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

A pretrial hearing is set at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at the federal courthouse in Huntington.

A jury trial has been set for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 13 in front of federal Judge Robert C. Chambers.