Pittsburgh interior designer to face judge in business fraud case out of Fox Chapel

An interior designer accused of swindling a Fox Chapel woman out of $170,000 is headed to court, the latest in a flurry of legal cases surrounding the embattled Pittsburgh business owner.

Lauren Michelle Piasecki, 44, of Pittsburgh’s Stanton Heights neighborhood waived her preliminary hearing Wednesday in a Sharpsburg district court. She is set to be arraigned Feb. 4 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office had charged Piasecki on Dec. 9 with four felonies — theft, receiving stolen property, deceptive business practices and home improvement fraud — in connection with her design business, Black Cherry Design.

The business previously operated on Butler Street in the city’s Lawrenceville neighborhood.

On Wednesday, Piasecki didn’t enter the courtroom on Sharpsburg’s Main Street and face her former client, a resident of Fox Chapel’s Hillcrest Road whose allegations of fraud led to Piasecki’s criminal charges.

Piasecki declined to speak with reporters.

Public defender Michael M. Finley, who is representing Piasecki, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

A growing number of lawsuits and criminal complaints provide the allegations.

In January 2023, Piasecki’s Fox Chapel client, who asked not be named publicly, inked an agreement to pay Black Cherry Design more than $5,000 for 102 billable hours of work, a complaint said.

Piasecki, in turn, sent the woman 12 invoices from July through December last year — for a total of $170,226, the complaint said.

The woman wrote multiple checks to Piasecki — and Piasecki deposited each of them, the complaint said.

But, aside from $1,300 worth of bathroom tiles and a $4,600 carpet Piasecki said she was keeping in a Verona storage unit, none of the purchases materialized, the complaint said.

Authorities allege Piasecki “spent the victim’s funds on business and personal expenses,” the compliant said.

Piasecki told police she owed four lenders more than $200,000 in high-interest business loans, faced mental health issues, and struggled to run her business alone while working to find a full-time job elsewhere, the complaint said.

Piasecki’s Fox Chapel client isn’t alone.

In January, Piasecki will have a preliminary hearing in city court in Downtown Pittsburgh and will be arraigned in Common Pleas court on two separate theft by deception charges out of Pittsburgh, court records show.

In February, Piasecki is set to be arraigned on a separate pair of theft by deception charges out of Mt. Lebanon, court records show.

Piasecki has been taken to court in the past over her finances.

In 2017, the IRS filed a lien against Piasecki for nearly $30,000 in unpaid taxes, court records show.

Two years later, in an unrelated case, a judge ordered Piasecki to pay nearly $4,000 to Capital One Bank, court records show.

One Black Cherry Design client told TribLive he’s tired of the court battles that resulted from a desire to renovate his home.

In 2022, Brandon Mahler hired Piasecki to design and purchase goods for the 124-year-old house where he recently had moved in Swissvale, Mahler said and court documents show. He paid Piasecki more than $16,000.

Piasecki, in turn, delivered four of the 18 items she told Mahler she had purchased, the complaint said. Two of the four items were damaged.

“Anything she was personally responsible for … 80% of those things were not delivered,” said Mahler, 42. “And that’s when the excuses started — in February of 2023. March goes by. Then, April. And it’s the same excuses.”

In April, Piasecki agreed to refund nearly $14,000, Mahler said. A pair of checks from Piasecki, totaling $13,665.70, both bounced, he said.

Mahler sued Piasecki last June.

Just last week, a judge ordered Piasecki to disclose information about her finances, court records show. If Piasecki does not do so within 30 days of the order, she could be held in contempt of court.