Minnesota bans St. Cloud remodeler for life and orders $1.1 million over unfinished jobs

Pietron signed the consent judgment on Nov. 2, and it went to a Hennepin County district judge for approval. It splits the money three ways: $518,096.80 in restitution for customers, the same amount as a civil penalty paid to the state, and $32,726.80 to cover the attorney general's legal costs. The full $1,068,920.40 is due within 30 days of entry. Pietron had denied the allegations when he answered the October 2025 lawsuit. Besides the ban, the order bars him from suing or chasing customers for payment on the old contracts.

The state says Pietron took tens of thousands of dollars from homeowners, sometimes six figures, for remodels that were never done. Investigators found dozens of families who lost $518,000 combined, far more than the almost $400,000 the state counted when it sued, KNSI reported. According to the attorney general, he sent fake progress updates to collect more, once faked an invoice in a real supplier's name for materials that were never ordered, usually did token demolition or nothing, and broke promises of refunds.

Pietron was never licensed. State labor regulators had already ordered him to stop presenting himself as licensed, yet he kept telling customers he held a license, the state says. With no license behind the business, his customers have no claim on the state's Contractor Recovery Fund. Prosecutors in the Wright County Attorney's office charged him separately, and he recently pleaded guilty to felony theft covering part of the same conduct.

The state sued him at the same time as Earl Christian Rode IV and High Road Builders, in a similar case that ended in January with a $2.6 million judgment and a permanent ban, according to KNSI. The labor department runs a free online license lookup, though most specialty contractors who work in a single trade do not need a state license.