One of two men sought on arrest warrants for two counts of felony construction fraud by the Ward County Sheriff’s Department made his initial appearance in North Central District Court on Friday.

Nathan Smith, 45, Sawyer, was arrested on Thursday and made his initial appearance before Judge Stacy Louser. Smith and co-defendant Layne Bennett, 38, Garrison, both face two counts of Class A felony construction fraud of more than $50,000 for taking money on abandoned projects connected to Garrison Creek Construction LLC (GCC), a concrete construction and general contracting company for which they are listed as organizers. Bennett has not yet been arrested, based on court records.

Smith and Bennett have been charged in two separate incidents, with charges filed for the first on July 23 and the second on Aug. 15. According to court documents, GCC was contracted to complete a concrete job in Ward County in July 2021 at a project cost of $98,500. While little work was done on the project, the client reported receiving four invoices for mud and concrete totalling nearly $70,000 through May 2022 from GCC and a subcontractor, Jasper Thomas.

The client later learned the concrete supplier was refusing to deliver for GCC as the company owed the supplier’s company too much money at that time. The individual had paid for 117 yards of concrete, but the supplier was not paid, although the money was deposited by GCC. According to court documents, while work on the project wasn’t being fulfilled, Smith had Bennett allegedly working on personal projects such as a lake cabin and a feedlot, utilizing around 114 yards of concrete for the latter. The client felt forced to hire a different contractor in late 2022 to complete the work.

The most recent incident is in connection to a tennis court completion in Ward County that Garrison Creek was contracted for in May 2021. The project cost was projected to be $43,500, and the contract required the client to pay 50% up front and the rest upon “satisfactory completion” of the project.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Bennett told the client that the initial credit card payment did not go through, and asked for additional payment in the form of a check for $20,000 to ensure work could begin on the tennis court. The check payment was provided and deposited, but the client later discovered the initial payment had gone through.

After nearly a year, the project hadn’t been completed, and a botched concrete pour was abandoned by the subcontractor, Thomas.

The client agreed to pay $13,000 for the tools necessary to tear up the botched pour but balked at Smith’s and Bennett’s demand that he pay for a second round of concrete, saying he had already paid beyond the original proposed cost. When he said if they didn’t finish the job he would turn the matter over to an attorney, Smith allegedly said, “I don’t care. Garrison Creek will be gone. It’s an LLC. You’ll get nothing.”

Thomas has been charged with Class B felony construction fraud-over $10,000 in connection to the first incident and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 5.

The maximum penalty for a Class A felony in North Dakota is 20 years in prison or a $20,000 fine or both.