Police say local con man on the run after scamming customers and businesses to “show his friends a good time”

IDAHO FALLS – A 20-year-old is facing a potentially lengthy prison sentence after police say he is on the run after scamming landscaping customers and buying trucks, ATVs, and more without having the money to do so.

Paul Yantis was charged in Bingham County in April with felony check, draft, or order was drawn on an account with insufficient funds, felony burglary and a probation violation.

In July, he was also charged in Bonneville County with felony burglary, felony grand theft and felony check, draft, or order was drawn on an account with insufficient funds.

According to Bingham County Prosecutor Ryan Jolley, both cases were resolved together with a “global” plea agreement.

Yantis resolved the cases by pleading guilty to an amended charge of felony drawing a check with insufficient funds, with the prosecution agreeing to dismiss the felony burglary and felony grand theft charges.

But Yantis failed to appear for his sentencing in the cases, and now he has an active warrant in Bingham County for a probation violation and two active felony warrants in Bonneville County.

Bouncing checks

According to court documents, Idaho Falls Police were told about multiple instances where Yantis had allegedly “purchased” expensive items with checks, only for the sellers to find out later that he had insufficient funds.

• On March 27, 2023, police say Yantis had bought a white 2011 Ford F150 for $22,000 from an Ammon man. Yantis paid with a check that was unable to be cashed due to the account having insufficient funds.
• On March 28, Yantis bought a 2023 Polaris side-by-side ATV from Action Motor Sports in Idaho Falls for $34,192.19. Again, he paid with a check.
• On March 30, Yantis reportedly bought a 4-wheeler from Blackfoot Motor Sports and tried to return it for trade on an earlier purchase of two Ski-Doo snow machines and a trailer. According to police reports, the checks he used to pay for these also bounced.
• On April 1, Yantis returned to Action Motor Sports and bought a 2022 Polaris RZR UTV for $44,457. Later, Action Motor Sports learned that the account the check was written from had insufficient funds.

Police reports say Yantis went back to Action Motor Sports on April 3 to have “warranty work done” on the RZR when the finance manager confronted him about all of the bouncing checks at both stores.

The finance manager contacted the police and said Yantis told him it “must be a mistake and that he would check with his accountant to determine why the funds weren’t in the account.”

The manager refused to let Yantis leave with the RZR, and he reportedly “promised to return later to resolve the matter.”

According to court documents, Action Motor Sports eventually got possession of both vehicles, but suffered a loss of $6,498.15 due to the mileage Yantis put on them.

Yantis was arrested in Blackfoot on April 3 and interviewed by a Bingham County Sheriff’s detective. He reportedly admitted to having passed the checks at Action Motor Sports, Blackfoot Motor Sports and to the Ammon man.

Police reports say initially, Yantis claimed the checks having insufficient funds was a mistake caused by his accountant not transferring funds into the account from another one of his accounts.

Eventually, he reportedly admitted he didn’t have enough money to cover the purchases and said he knew it was illegal.

Yantis said he “used to have a lot of money, but that his business had fallen on some hard times, financially.”

According to court documents, Yantis claimed he had “become the person in his group of friends that doesn’t have anything,” and because of this, “he wanted to have a summer during which he show(ed) his friends a good time.”

Detectives ordered a search warrant for Yantis’ bank records that showed he opened the account on March 17 with a deposit of $10.30. No additional funds were deposited after that. The account was closed on April 11.

An IFPD officer contacted Yantis, who claimed he “buys new toys every year and always writes checks from his business account, but has never had any prior problems.”

He reportedly told the officer that his “company accountant handles the funds and advised he was in the process of having him correct the issue.”

On April 18, the officer contacted Yantis’ bank to ask if he had enough money to cover any of the bounced checks. The bank reportedly said, “There has never been enough funds in the account to cover either of the checks.”

If convicted, Yantis could face up to 27 years in prison, potentially even more for failing to appear to court.

Alleged landscaping fraud

Yantis has also been sued at least twice by people alleging that his company “Yantis Landscaping” took 50% of the upfront cost to perform landscaping work. Many say he did part of the work and then “ghosted” them.

A former Madison County Sheriff’s deputy Travis Williams, says he refuses to be scammed after Yantis failed to do work he was paid for in advance.

“Mine wasn’t a lot of money involved, compared to other people that are victims out there,” says Williams. “I worked for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office for 18 years, 10 years in major crimes, and I’m not gonna get taken by a scammer.”

According to court documents, in July 2022, Williams found Yantis Landscaping through a Facebook advertisement, saying they were offering bids for landscaping work for new clients.

Williams met with Yantis on July 20 at his home in Sugar City, where he explained work he wanted done, including cleaning out a ditch, bringing in topsoil, grading and leveling, and removing a cement culvert box.

Yantis reportedly gave Williams two bids for the job and asked him to provide an initial deposit of 50% of the total balance.

“He came and did some of it, and then never finished the job,” says Williams. “And he did some damage on the property while doing the first job.”

Once Yantis started, Williams asked him for a second bid and paid him 50% upfront. On Aug. 8, Yantis said he was “wrapping up the first bid” and requested the remainder of the balance. Williams paid it.

He later asked Yantis about when he was going to come back to work, and Yantis said they would be there “in the next 45 minutes.”

When Williams got home from work that day, the job was still unfinished, and there was damage to his yard. When asked if they would fix the damage, Yantis reportedly agreed. The damage was never fixed.

On Aug. 17, Yantis said he sent someone to Williams’ house to fix a sprinkler. Nobody ever showed up. Williams called and texted Yantis multiple times for the next month and never received a response.

On Sept. 19, Yantis responded, apologizing for the delay, and said they were “wrapping up other jobs” but that Williams was still “on the schedule.’

Over a month later, on Oct. 26, Williams sent a text demanding a timeline for the work to be finished. Again, he never heard back. Williams texted Yantis again on Nov. 1, 10, 17, and 23.

On Dec. 10, over a month later, Williams texted Yantis that he would be taking him to court if he did not hear back from him by the end of the day. Yantis allegedly read the text and never replied.

“We got some of the work done, he maybe did a fourth of the work he was supposed to do,” says Williams.

On March 23, Williams filed a small claims complaint against Yantis.

After going through this experience, Williams would tell others to do more research when trying to find a reputable landscaping company.

“Check references. Actually, get a reference and check it,” says Williams. “Right up front, see if they’re registered with the state, see if they have a legitimate LLC. Find out how long they’ve been in the business.”