Suspected fraudster with Tri-Cities ties accused of stealing contractor ID’s to steal thousands
A warning from the Washington Department of Labor and Industries led to the arrest of a man investigators say was using stolen credentials to scam people out of thousands of dollars for jobs he never intended to finish.
At least two Tri-Citians are among his suspected victims.
Antonio Gonzalez was caught after a man renovating a resort restaurant north of Yakima worked with Yakima County investigators to set up a sting.
A S100,000 arrest warrant was issued for Gonzalez on Feb. 24 after county prosecutors filed 26 criminal charges, according to a release from the prosecutor’s office.
The felony charges include criminal impersonation, first-degree theft, second-degree theft and attempted first- and second- degree theft, along with contracting without a license, which is a gross misdemeanor.
He was arrested at a job site on Friday, Feb. 25, and has since posted bail. Gonzalez is set to appear in court again March 14.
In the last six months of 2021, L&I had cited Gonzalez for 30 civil infractions carrying total fines of more than $110,000.
Of those infractions, 13 were for performing or offering to perform construction while unregistered, 10 for falsely using another contractor’s registration and seven for plumbing and electrical-related violations.
A Richland man who is battling cancer, and his wife, paid Gonzalez $3,000 toward the remodel of a bathroom, which was never finished, according to L&I.
And a Pasco man told KIMA TV in Yakima that Gonzalez had taken him for $2,000.
Gonzalez arrested
A Yakima Valley project manager saw the Pasco man’s story on TV and he realized he had recently encountered Gonzalez.
When Jim Palzer was putting out bids for a set of stairs for a new restaurant at Mineral Springs Resort, on the east side of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, the actions of one of the contractors raised red flags.
Palzer told the Tri-City Herald that a friend owns the resort and asked him to help her with renovations and adding a new restaurant called The Raven and the Rooster because of his background in construction development and property management.
“One of the things we needed done to get a Certificate of Occupancy was some egress stairs off of the second floor,” he said. “I looked in the Craigslist ads in Wenatchee and Yakima under skilled labor and found Gonzalez.”
He said Gonzalez came out, took a look at the job and followed up a few days later with an e-mail.
“A few days later Gonzalez sent me an e-mail, and on the e-mail he just had certain things written down with the dollar amount by them (such as material costs) but no labor costs,” Palzer said. “I then texted him back and asked him for a formal bid, and sent him a template to use and he said he wouldn’t do that, that’s not how he does business.”
Gonzalez, using the credentials for another company called Gonzalez and Sons Carpentry, was asking for $14,000, with half up front. He wanted the check written out to him though, not the company.
Palzer suspected then that it was a scam, so he told him he would get back to him, intending to move on.
A few days later, as he was drinking his morning coffee, he came across the TV story about a Pasco resident that had been scammed, along with the warning L&I had issued about Gonzalez. It was at this point, he knew he had to do something.
“You know, I’ve got a saying written on my bathroom mirror, it says, ‘Do the right thing, especially when no one is looking,’” Palzer said. “It irritated me that he ripped off these people. It irritated me that he was going to keep doing that, even though there were articles out there about what he was doing. It wasn’t about being vindictive, it was about doing the right thing.”
Palzer contacted the reporter who helped get him in contact with Yakima County prosecutors.
After speaking with an assistant prosecutor, Palzer said he was asked if he’d be willing to help them.
“They asked if I’d be willing to wear a wire and meet up with Antonio again, because they wanted to arrest him, but weren’t sure if they had quite enough,” he said.
Palzer agreed, and got Gonzalez to come back out to the job site under the pretense of moving forward with the initial job, and a potential bid for a new shed.
When Gonzalez came to discuss the job, Palzer said two detectives in plainclothes were standing nearby looking at blueprints.
“He wrote a handwritten bid right there on the spot, and wanted $17,500 as a down payment, but he wanted it written to him,” Palzer said. “When I asked why, he said it was for tax purposes, he said he paid a lot less on his taxes that way. That was another red flag, because (Gonzalez) knew we could go after him personally if something happened.”
Most business people would not expose themselves personally to that kind of liability instead of making the check out to a bonded business with insurance coverage.
Palzer said that was something that no legitimate contractor would consider, because the purpose of a construction bond is to protect them from liability and ensure their work is up to standards.
When asked about the amount of his contractor bond, Gonzalez gave Palzer an amount that didn’t match the state’s standard for either contractors or subcontractors, and when pressed further about the personal check, he told Palzer to lie if anyone questioned it.
“I said what if the IRS comes and questions it,” Palzer said. “He told me to say it was a loan if anyone asks.”
Altogether, Gonzalez believes he could have scammed them out of more than $30,000.
Palzer said that meeting was enough for a judge to sign the arrest warrant, so they asked Gonzalez to return to pick up a check. When he arrived, law enforcement officers were waiting.
Gonzalez was arrested by the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office on the Yakima County warrants.
“I was excited to help, I wanted him caught,” Palzer said. “I wanted him arrested, so hopefully it stops him from doing this to more people.”
Palzer said this ordeal also gave him the chance to help one of the legitimate contractors whose credentials Gonzalez allegedly has been using — Ernesto Gonzalez, who owns Gonzalez and Sons Carpentry in Yakima.
“What is interesting out of this is that I’ve had the opportunity to talk to Ernesto Gonzalez ... and he said, ‘Will you do me a favor? I’m so happy that you got him off the street, will you please allow me to bid that for you?,” Palzer said.
“I would love to give him the opportunity to bid this work, and my preference is to hire him so people can see he’s a good guy.”
The Yakima County Prosecutor’s Office believes there may be others who have been taken advantage of by Antonio Gonzalez, who have not yet come forward.
They are encouraging anyone who believes they have been the victim of Gonzalez to contact L&I Construction Compliance lnspector Marco Campos at 509-454-3751 or cmar235@lni.wa.gov or the Yakima County Prosecutor’s Office at 509-574-1210. Ask for Joseph Brusic or Geoff Wickes.
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
