The owner of a Kitsap County-based home remodeling company was charged with a felony after he allegedly forged bid documents that added roughly $15,000 to a subcontractor’s proposal for work on a residence in Poulsbo, according to court documents.
Prosecutors charged 33-year-old Matthew Ryan Puhr, of North Kitsap, with a count of forgery in Kitsap County Superior Court on Tuesday. In an initial court appearance, Puhr pleaded not guilty to the charge.
An attorney representing Puhr did not respond to a message seeking comment for this story.
A Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy was initially dispatched for a call on Dec. 30 connected to a home in Poulsbo that was being remodeled by Puhr’s company, according to court documents. Puhr is the owner of Boxer Home Remodel & Painting and was acting as the company’s general manager, the deputy wrote in a report.
The deputy was initially contacted by the owner of a subcontracting firm working on the home who said that he had submitted two separate bid proposals to Puhr for work at the residence. Those proposals were then altered by Puhr and presented to the homeowners as being the official bids from the subcontractor, the deputy wrote, noting that the cost was changed on the proposals to show an increase of about 55%. The total price increase on the forged proposals was about $15,000, and the subcontractor said that he never gave permission to alter the costs, according to court documents.
The deputy reviewed emails in which Puhr had presented the forged proposals to the homeowners, representing them as having been proposed by the subcontractor, and the couple confirmed that they believed the proposals had been submitted by the subcontractor and were not aware that they had been altered.
The deputy wrote that Puhr said in an interview that the changed prices were included on the invoice that the homeowners would have to pay and confirmed that the subcontractor would be paid the original amount listed on his proposal. The extra money would then go to Puhr’s company.
“During my interview with Matthew he verified that he had altered (the original proposals) by copy and pasting the contents onto a new document and then changing the cost,” the deputy wrote. “He confirmed that the cost added to each proposal was approximately 55% of the original amount.”
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Owner of Kitsap remodel company charged for forging bid documents