Husband and wife sentenced in fraud conspiracy involving more than $4 million in unfinished custom home projects

FORT WORTH, Texas - United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould announced that a Fort Worth couple was sentenced today for their roles in a yearslong fraud scheme involving dozens of victims and millions of dollars in losses.

Christopher Judge, 35, and Raquelle Judge, 36, pled guilty in December 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Senior U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means sentenced Christopher Judge to 78 months in federal prison to be followed by two years of supervised release. Raquelle Judge was sentenced to one month in prison. Both defendants were ordered to pay $2,794,680.73 in restitution.

"Fraudsters who exploit hard working families in the Northern District of Texas will face serious consequences," said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould. "The Judges didn't just abandon construction sites; their entire business model was built on lies and deceit. This kind of brazen fraud strikes at the heart of consumer trust, and our office will ensure that those who engage in such criminal conduct face justice."

According to court documents, the Judges were managing members of Judge DFW LLC, a Texas-based company they used to falsely market themselves as providers of custom architecture, construction and interior design services. From approximately August 2020 through January 2023, the defendants offered below-market bids to consumers across six counties in North Texas, inducing them to enter into design-and-build contracts for custom home projects.

Although victims paid multiple installment payments for their projects, the Judges failed to complete most of the work and often abandoned projects entirely, leaving victims without finished homes. The defendants also admitted to falsely representing that Christopher Judge was a licensed architect.

Court records reflect that the couple defrauded more than 40 victims across at least 24 construction projects. The defendants commingled victims' installment payments in the primary Judge DFW operating account, frequently using individual victim installment payments for unrelated construction projects. The total loss amount is estimated at approximately $4.2 million.

The FBI's Fort Worth Resident Agency and the Euless Police Department investigated the case, with assistance from the U.S. Secret Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark McDonald and Laura Montes from the Fort Worth Division prosecuted the case.

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