Scamming contractor is going to prison
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, October 26th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
ELLENSBURG – An Ellensburg man must serve nearly five years in prison for scamming homeowners out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for unfinished construction jobs that often left homes in worse shape than when he started.
On Monday, John Robert Mulinski, 61, was sentenced in Kittitas County Superior Court for three counts of first-degree theft. He pleaded guilty last month to the felony charges. The judge also ordered Mulinski to repay victims in the criminal cases nearly $950,000.
The Kittitas County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office prosecuted Mulinski based on investigations by the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office, and the Cle Elum Police Department.
L&I’s investigation found Mulinski frequently worked as an unregistered contractor in violation of state law, failed to finish homeowners’ construction projects, used other contractors’ registration numbers, and misled customers, including eight senior citizens, from the spring of 2017 to the spring of 2020 in Kittitas and Yakima counties. Total consumer losses ran into the millions of dollars.
This is not the first time Mulinski has faced fraud charges. In 2011, he was sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $138,000 in restitution to victims in Montana while operating as a roofing contractor. He was released in early 2017, the same year he began working in Central Washington.
Photo of Mr. Mulinski via Washington State Department of Labor & Industries
