Handing a contractor a big deposit for a major home project is already an act of trust — you’re paying before you see any of the work done. A sentencing out of Minnesota this fall is a reminder of what it costs when that trust is misplaced on purpose.
What he was sentenced for
Charles Ray Workman, 41, of Scott County, Minnesota, was sentenced September 3 to 60 months in federal prison for wire fraud. The Department of Justice’s announcement says Workman ran a company called Minnesota Crete Pools, LLC, taking down payments from customers for swimming pool construction he had no real intention of completing.
Workman pleaded guilty to the charge in 2025. This sentencing is the resolved outcome of that plea, not a new allegation.
How the scheme is said to have worked
Prosecutors say Workman took at least $820,000 from 21 customers between roughly 2021 and 2022 — deposits for pools that, according to DOJ, he knew were unlikely to ever get built. He was ordered to pay $1.15 million in restitution, more than the amount actually taken, to account for what customers lost chasing a project that never happened.
That gap between the loss and the restitution figure is its own detail worth sitting with. Losing a deposit on an unbuilt pool isn’t just the deposit — it’s the backyard that stayed torn up, the summer that got lost waiting, the second contractor hired to fix what the first one never started.
What this means if you’re hiring a contractor right now
Ask for a payment schedule tied to completed work, not one large deposit up front for the whole job.
Check that a license and bond are current, not just that they exist on paper somewhere. U.S. District Judge Michael J. Davis handed down the sentence, and DOJ filed the case under its consumer protection docket, explicitly framing it as a warning for homeowners to research a contractor before paying anything substantial.
The part worth holding onto
Twenty-one households paid for something real and got nothing, and the person responsible is now the one paying for it, with prison time and a restitution order larger than what he took. That’s not the same as getting a pool. But it’s accountability, on the record, from a federal court.
If you’re about to sign a contract for a big home project, asking hard questions before you pay isn’t being difficult. This case is exactly why the questions exist.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Womens Overview editors prior to publication.