Triad Carports president facing more charges, additional fraud allegations
DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A man is now facing more charges after an additional 19 people were allegedly defrauded by a carport company in the Triad.
According to the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, they began a fraud investigation involving Triad Carports and Metal Structures, Inc., doing business as Triad Carports, located in Lexington, in early 2025. As they investigated, they identified 25 victims who had been defrauded out of money by the company for work that was never completed.
The fraud began as early as late 2022 and totaled over $300,000, according to the Davidson County Sheriff's Office.
The sheriff's office says that Jesse Allen Black, 52, of Trinity, was taking cash deposits for buildings and structures that were never built.
Black was arrested on April 15 after a search warrant was executed at Triad Carports. He was charged with 25 counts of felonious obtaining property by false pretences.
On Thursday, Black was once again arrested on an additional 19 counts of felonious obtaining property by false pretenses and two counts of felonious worthless checks after an additional investigation.
The 19 victims in the additional investigation allege that Black had been taking deposits for buildings to be built by Triad Carports, and the work was never started or completed.
Investigators say that around $285,726 was lost in total deposits from the 19 victims and that Black had issued two checks totalling $47,140 to businesses even though there were insufficient funds to pay them.
FOX8 checked out the company's profile on the Better Business Bureau's website, and it states the company is not accredited by the BBB, giving it an overall F rating.
The website showed 18 complaints filed against the business.
Triad Carports released the following statement on April 21:
First and foremost, Triad Carports & Metal Structures, Inc. fanatically denies any allegations of Obtaining Property By False Pretense, of which the Davidson County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division has wrongly charged. The NC General Statute requires that to be charged or found guilty of such criminal action, the individual being charged must have knowingly and willfully misrepresented or used trickery to promise a future event without any intent to carry out such fulfillment. Triad Carports & Metal Structures, Inc., nor any representative of the business, has ever taken prepayments or deposits on any planned projects with the intent of not completing those projects. It is an unfortunate situation that in our line of work, people tend make these plans and these purchases spontaneously for something they may want done yesterday. Due to delays in materials, weather and other unexpected life situations, no company can insure an exact date to install or complete these type of projects until just a few days from when they can occur. In many situations, we may be ready to fulfill the project but the customer may have had a change in their circumstances and we may be delayed by them. The next project is then delayed and that can at times snowball into a problem. We make extraordinary efforts to communicate with our customers about delays and expected project dates but unfortunately you can't make everyone happy, every time. Our contracts are simple and very specific to not include a completion time frame so that we intentionally don't set unreasonable expectations.
Davidson County CID Officers only listened to one side of the story from a small number of our unhappy customers and never considered the fact that we have hundreds of extremely satisfied clients. Our staff are actively working every day to complete and fulfill the back log of contracts we have outstanding. Our lot has materials on it and some buildings are ready for install but our installers are simply pushed to their limits right now. We have completed more than 30 installs since January and only taken less than 5 small fill-in jobs, that we had materials on-hand to facilitate, while we waited on new material since January 2025. This is a supply and demand issue and not a criminal issue. Even if there were a legitimate concern, it should be a civil matter and simply don't meet the elements of felony criminal charges. In the process of charging, CID has taken our contracts, software, financial account receiving records and created additional delays by withholding vital components that we need during our day to day operations. CID has even gone as far as to charge me with fraud on some cases that the projects were either finished or the customers were refunded in full. This investigation was less than accurate and I feel like to make these charges, the Sheriff's Office Investigators had to misrepresent the situation to judicial officials to obtain search warrants and swore inaccurate testimonies to magistrates regarding the facts.
Regardless, Triad Carports & Metal Structures, Inc. will continue to complete projects and fulfill orders until every customer is happy or satisfied with the end result.
Triad Carports President Jesse Black
Black was taken to the Davidson County Jail without bond and will appear in court on June 2. He had been on pre-trial release from his initial arrest on April 15.
Investigators say that there are now 46 total victims from Triad Carports and Black and their total loss sits at $611,008.
The sheriff's office asks that anyone who has information related to this investigation or who could be a victim of Triad Carports to please contact Lieutenant C. Goforth at (336) 242-2123.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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