Retired architect Gene Cravillion hasn’t practiced architecture since August 2022. The 91-year-old suffers from dementia and lives in a North Naples assisted-living facility. Yet more than 400 plans bearing his state-registered architectural seal have been submitted to the Collier County Building Plan Review & Inspection Division since then; he ostensibly wrote letters to the county last November and December affirming his work; and his license was renewed in November for two years. Seemingly fraudulent Cravillion letters were typed on letterhead using his seal — and someone posing as him inspected work on homes and attended a county hearing. “With his dementia, he has no idea this is going on,” Cravillion’s son, Tom, a design professional, said in an interview, adding his father had worked in the past with James D. Allen and Octavio Sarmiento, not with others who were cited by the state. “All these ended up being faked … It’s ridiculous. He’s been in assisted living since 2022. “Sometimes what they’d do is, he’d either get transported over to their office to review it or they would bring a plan in to him and he’d look at it. We saw that he no longer had income. No one was coming,” Tom Cravillion said. “His demen- tia was so bad about a year ago, he stopped [working].” The exact number of properties affected isn’t known, but an investigation by The Naples Press shows at least one North Naples homeowner’s certificate of occupancy was revoked 21 months after it was issued; many were hit with stop-work orders; lawsuits are pending; and several firms were called before code enforcement boards and the county Contractors’ Licensing Board. Among them was Nova Homes of South Florida, which used Dave Wainscott Designs, a firm connected to many cases. Collier has revoked Nova Homes’ permit-pulling privileges. Neither Wainscott nor Eric Pacheco, Nova Homes’ chief operating officer, returned calls or emails seeking comment. State Department of Business & Professional Regulation records show Wainscott has a history of unlicensed activity. They work in the same office building on Beck Boulevard. “I’m not certain what the driver is, other than just greed,” John McCormick, director of the county Building Plan Review & Inspection Division, told the 16-member Development Services Advisory Committee this month, adding that the numbers involved — they flagged 400 permits last month — continue to grow. Last month, McCormick told the DSAC someone accessed Cravillion’s password to use his seal, which he called “substantial fraud … As a director, it’s my responsibility to keep this from happening again.” Florida statutes require registered architects to use seals prescribed by the Florida Board of Architecture. Digital seals are used to verify the authenticity of architectural documents, establish an architect’s identity and show safety- code compliance, structural integrity and adherence to local, state and national standards. Hundreds more permit applications were sub...