Charles Workman, a Minnesota man accused of promising to build swimming pools and not finishing the job, has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges.

The 37-year-old pool contractor is facing federal wire fraud charges after a grand jury criminally indicted him March 15.

According to court documents, beginning in 2021, Workman, the owner of MN Crete Pools, knowingly devised and participated in a scheme to defraud and obtain money from people through advertising installation of swimming pools around Minnesota. Part of this scheme was to solicit and receive down payments from his customers in exchange for “securing” a spot for the customer in the company’s workload that same year.

Between April 2021 and June 2021, Workman collected down payments from about one customer a month, and then increased the rate of collecting down payments through the summer months, court documents state. Furthermore, he told his customers that he would take only a few weeks to finish the new pool projects despite knowing that he hadn’t fully completed any of the pool projects he had started earlier that year.

He is accused of pocketing his customers money for his own use and benefit. Court documents state that he made a $3,000 child support payment, spent more than $18,000 at a casino, and more than $6,000 on a horse and saddle.

“It was further part of the scheme that defendant Workman’s misuse of his customers’ money left MN Crete Pools unable to meet its obligations to its customers and unable to refund its customers’ money, even though many customers never received the swimming pool that they purchased,” court documents state.

To entice customers, he told them that their pools would be protected by a “lifetime guarantee.”

In all, Workman received more than $750,000 in payments from customers for whom he did not construct pools.

Court documents include proof of interstate wire transmission of more than $114,000, which allows for criminal charges.

On April 10, Workman entered a plea of not guilty. After the arraignment, Workman was released with conditions that include that he must not obtain a passport or foreign travel documents, and he must attend to probation and pretrial services as directed.

Workman’s victims are pleased with the criminal charges, which offer validation, if not restitution. “I want him to go to jail and I want it to go to trial,” said New Prague resident Cassie Kieffer. “I want him to see my face and know you really not only have betrayed our trust, you’ve broken our hearts.”

The FBI investigation of Workman began after a local CBS affiliate, WCOO, began sharing stories of Workman’s scheme in June 2022.

“It really took this band of people coming together in order to get the attention of the authorities in a real way,” said Chaska resident Erin Olson.