With Wall Street Congress and just about everyone else out to make a free buck at the expense of the public why not the developer hired by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
High-profile Colorado Springs developer Ray Marshall was arrested February 3rd on two charges of theft and another racketeering charge for allegedly stealing more than $1 million in grant funds intended to pay for a new headquarters for the U.S. Olympic Committee and two related projects.
Most of the money Marshall allegedly diverted came from $2 million in grants the El Pomar Foundation made to the city to pay the costs of remodeling a former Colorado Springs Utilities building into offices for Olympic-related organizations and to remodel a downtown office building to house the USOC until its headquarters was completed.
This is not the developer’s first run-in with the law.
The 47-year-old Marshall, chairman of LandCo Equity Partners, and LandCo President James Brodie, already faced a trial last March on 15 securities fraud charges and 18 other counts that include theft and racketeering.
How did Marshall accomplish this? Through theft, bank fraud and other acts in a pattern of racketeering. He repeatedly diverted funds to other unrelated real estate projects that his entities had an interest.
He also submitted duplicate invoices from contractors to banks to draw funds out of two separate accounts and then used the money to buy controlling interest in the building used by the USOC for temporary office space and also to acquire property or make payments on loans involving LandCo projects unrelated to the USOC. He also used money from the grants, laundered through other bank accounts, to pay management fees to LandCo, real estate commissions to himself and payments to other LandCo officials, none of which were authorized by El Pomar.
Who suffers the consequences? The Colorado tax payers of course. The city of Colorado Springs was forced to directly pay contractors more than $3.73 million in order to salvage the agreement with the USOC.
This guy is a repeat crook. Action should be taken to make sure anyone doing business with him knows he is a crook. While in jail I hope to see him take a stop theft class and hopefully find a way to come back to society and make an honorable man of himself.
Source: loansafe.org