A Wayzata husband and wife, already convicted of skimming money from a multimillion-dollar bank loan intended to finance a doomed Orono project, were put back in jail over the weekend on suspicion of initiating an additional financial scheme.

This time, Philip and Virginia Carlson are charged in Hennepin County District Court with trying to scam a couple out of the $180,000 bank loan they took out for construction of a home in Scandia.

The criminal complaint against each alleging felony theft by swindle details at least two instances when the Carlsons and the couple clasped hands and prayed amid rocky times in the business relationship that spanned many months in 2012 and 2013, when the Carlsons were already facing charges in the Orono case.

Virginia Carlson, 63, falsely claimed to the couple that she was an architect, while Philip Carlson, 58, presented himself as a longtime homebuilder, the complaint continued. The Carlsons were booked into jail late Sunday morning and remain there without bail.

In November, the Carlsons were each sentenced to a year in the county workhouse for forging invoices from subcontractors to skim money from a $6.4 million bank loan intended for construction of an office development project in Orono that was never completed. This theft played a role in the collapse of First Commercial Bank of Bloomington.

Philip Carlson was granted work release, and Virginia Carlson received permission for release to seek employment and medical furloughs. Their respective 21-month prison sentences were stayed as long as they stay law-abiding.

According to the complaint in the most recent case, the couple became frustrated with the Carlsons' stalling tactics and continued efforts to squeeze more money out of them. The couple had already paid the Carlsons $10,000 in hopes of seeing design work that was never produced.

Eventually, the couple severed the business relationship, the complaint continued, prompting the Carlsons to try in vain to get the construction loan money directly from a branch of Associated Bank in Plymouth.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482