Federal agencies step in to lead investigation of pool contractor work first exposed by WCCO
MINNEAPOLIS -- New information in an ongoing WCCO investigation. The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI are now leading the criminal investigation into a swimming pool contractor.
Charles Workman is accused of taking tens of thousands of dollars from Minnesota families and not finishing the job. There's a major update in the civil investigation filed by the state's attorney general.
Family after family say they were fooled by Workman, a contractor they hired to build a swimming pool. Backyards were ripped up with gaping holes left behind. Work on promised pools was left unfinished or not started at all.
"He ruined my yard, cut my patio, broke my fence and took my money," Kyle Swenson said.
The strain on families is impossible to fully calculate.
"Now it's time away from my family because I'm doing extra things to make more money on the side. And it doesn't stop there. Every single day it's added stress, to my family, to me, to whatever my plans are," Swenson said.
After WCCO exposed Workman took more than a million dollars collectively from more than a dozen Minnesota families and abandoned the jobs, Attorney General Keith Ellison civilly sued him in August.
"This is [a] deceptive trade practice. This is fraud, this is, it's morally wrong but it's also illegal," Ellison said in August.
Workman hasn't responded to any of the legal filings, so Ellison's office filed what's called a Motion for Default to award a judgment without Workman showing up. Accompanying paperwork asks a judge to declare his actions illegal, saying his "scheme was extremely deceptive and designed to repeatedly victimize the same consumers."
It also asks to rule in favor of the victims and refund their money, paying a total of $2.26 million in restitution and civil penalties in addition to paying the state's legal fees and court costs. It also asks the judge to order Workman to never work in the construction industry in Minnesota again.
"We hope that that's kind of the starting point. Long term, criminal would be the ideal outcome, but anything civil just to have a victory, to have something to say like, 'This is what we've been through,'" Swenson said.
On top of that, WCCO discovered at the same time Workman promised to do the jobs in Minnesota, he was renting Airbnbs in Kentucky. Two people there are suing him and his new company for non-payment of rent. The civil suits accuse Workman of skipping out on nearly $10,000 in one case, $5,000 in the other. And they note Workman said "they will pay" and "we have the money" but never showed.
"It's the same story, it's the same actions and he just literally keeps getting away with it in different situations. It's hard to watch," Swenson said.
Workman has a previous criminal conviction in his home state of Kentucky of theft by deception.
He has a current license to work in Kentucky, but WCCO was told that it's under review.
WCCO reached out to Workman through the contact information he provided to work in Kentucky. We have not heard back from him. He's scheduled to be in court on the civil case with the Minnesota Attorney General's Office later this month.
The U.S. Attorney's Office had no comment.
