Minnesota AG goes after two contractors for alleged homeowner scams of $1.6M

The state has sued two unlicensed Minnesota contractors for defrauding dozens of homeowners of more than $1.6 million after taking money and abandoning construction projects across the state.

In one of several cases outlined in the lawsuit, one of the contractors is accused of taking $400,000 to extensively renovate the home of a client’s mother. Instead, the lawsuit says, he partly demolished sections of the Ramsey County home and then abandoned the job without protecting the roof.

The house was “unsalvageable” and had to be demolished, the complaint said.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, accuses the founders of High Road Builders in Pine Springs and Affordable Home Remodeling LLC in Deephaven of running nearly identical scams where they took sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in pre-payments from homeowners but delivered little, if any, work.

High Road’s owner, Earl Christian Rode IV, 37 and a resident of North St. Paul, and Affordable Home’s owner, Ryan David Pietron of St. Cloud, also are both separately accused of forging documents, presenting homeowners with fake references, licenses and insurance information, according to the complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court.

Attempts to reach Pietron for comment were not successful.

Rode said in a voicemail that “99.9% of all those allegations are false. I haven’t had that business in four to five years.”

The government, however, insists it has a case and said in the lawsuit that in many instances the two unrelated business owners told clients they needed more money and then disappeared after receiving the funds.

The state received so many complaints that it had already banned both firms from applying for a contractor’s license in Minnesota, according to the lawsuit.

Rode and his eight-year-old High Road Builders allegedly took more than $1.2 million from more than 10 Minnesota families, while Pietron and his Affordable Home Remodeling firm were allegedly paid nearly $400,000 by 16 families, the lawsuit said.

“Defendants use dishonesty and deception to ensnare consumers in their scheme,” the lawsuit said. “They lie to consumers about working for or with legitimate third-party companies with whom they have no connection whatsoever.”

Because the defendants operated without a license, some victims were unable to receive help from the Contractor Recovery Fund after being scammed, including an Apple Valley woman who was out $27,000 she paid to have two decks built.

Other customers also tried but could not get repayment from the recovery fund.

Victims in the civil lawsuit are only identified by initials and the towns or counties in which they lived. The state — which accused both contractors of fraud, deceptive trade practices and false advertising — is seeking a cease-and-desist order and full restitution to victims.