14 MARCH 16-22, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | the delay getting back to your text. I had a chemo day. ... I don’t mean to put you in a back burner but I am. We have a lot to dis- cuss. I’m working on a plan to get you all of your money back from the cashed checks to the investments gotta jump through a few hula hoops to keep you out of trouble. Let’s link up Monday.” Stoots: “I hope you feel better. I don’t un- derstand what trouble you could be keeping me out of. I’m extremely stressed out and I have no idea what’s going on.” No response. Stoots: “I know you’re going through a tough time. But my family is really getting beat up by this. Can you please let me know what’s going on?” From that moment on, Lobins stopped responding to Stoots. Knocks on his door went unanswered. By now, offi cials with the Colorado Di- vision of Securities had been looking into Lobins Wealth Management, prompted by a complaint submitted by Stoots. Investigators at- tempted to reach Lobins through multiple emails, letters and voicemails but got no response. It turned out that Lobins was never registered with the SEC as an investment advisor, nor were he or his company approved to function as “securities brokers,” as re- quired by law. In late 2020, state agents fi led subpoe- nas to allow investigators access to his accounts. According to an affi da- vit fi led in Denver District Court, an investigative au- dit of Lobins Wealth Man- agement fi nancials showed that Lobins had deposited around $270,000 of the funds into his personal bank accounts. “The outflow analysis shows Mr. Lobins used the vast majority, at least 98%, of the funds solicited from Mr. Stoots, [Katie] and one other investor for his personal benefi t,” states the affi da- vit. “Mr. Lobins’ use of these funds include transfers to his personal trading accounts at Merrill Lynch, TD Ameri- trade, and Robinhood, trans- fers to his personal checking account at Bank of America, rent payment obligations, payment of personal credit cards, payments to other investors, and payments to the mother of his child.” Investigators also looked into the account statements and screenshots sent by Lobins to Stoots that purported to show his invest- ments were sound and stable. They looked up the number of one Merrill Lynch investment account and “learned the account was not owned by Lobins.” Meanwhile, records indicate that Lobins Wealth Management was granted a $20,833 PPE loan as part of the pandemic relief program, with Lobins listing his business as “Offi ces of Real Estate Agents and Brokers.” Stoots hired an attorney and fi led a law- suit against Lobins in Denver District Court on December 28, 2020, alleging breach of contract, breach of fi duciary duty, deceit based on fraud, and civil theft related to the investments and a promissory note. Stoots was represented by Lindsey Brown, an at- torney with Milgrom & Daskam. According to Brown, Lobins was served with the complaint, which had a sum- mary of all the facts as well as the charges, “so he was aware of what was going on.” After Lobins failed to respond to any of the pleadings, in May 2021 a judge issued a default judgment in favor of Stoots for $518,168, which covered the principal he’d lost, plus interest and damages. While the eye-popping award was a victory, it was a hollow one. Typically, victims are able to recoup compensation by requiring the de- fendant to fi ll out fi nancial questionnaires and fi ling writs to garnish wages or other assets. “But we weren’t able to serve [Lobins] those documents because he’s avoiding ser- vice, in my opinion,” Brown says. Attempts to look into some of Lobins’s known bank accounts “turned up empty, so we haven’t yet been able to collect.” The strategy of simply not showing up — the most basic form of avoidance — seemed to be working just fi ne for Lobins. “I don’t know that this was his whole plan the whole time,” Stoots says. “I think about that often. Part of me thinks he thought he was actually gonna be able to return every- body a profi t, but just wasn’t being transpar- ent on how, and he didn’t really have an exit strategy or escape plan.” And another part of him was just in shock. “In the beginning, it felt like I failed my daughter,” Stoots says. “I couldn’t even tell my dad. I’d just be like, ‘Dude, you’re an idiot. You’re an idiot.’ And I was just beating myself up every day.” Living on Larimer Street, he’d walk past Lo- bins’s home every day, look in the windows and try to make sense of what hap- pened. “I went to therapy for a long time,” he says. “It was a huge point of con- tention in the relationship I was in with my girlfriend at the time. Just ’cause, you know, I probably wasn’t my best self.” In early 2022, it seemed like progress was finally being made when the Den- ver District Attorney’s Of- fi ce fi led criminal charges against Lobins for two counts of securities fraud and two counts of theft over $100,000; a warrant was fi led for his arrest. With four felony charges, Lobins could be facing years in prison if convicted. But fi rst, he had to be arrested. Stoots had fi nally saved up enough money to buy a home, this time in Westminster, but he still found himself making pilgrimages down to Larimer to see if he could catch Lobins walking about. To see if he could get the cops to respond. On February 22, 2023, during an evening snowstorm that made Denver’s roads hard to navigate, a team of six Denver police offi cers entered the Walnut Room. Everyone in the crowded venue, located just one block off Larimer, took notice. This included Lobins and a group of his friends, many of whom happen to be lawyers, who were hanging out around the virtual golf game. Lobins noticed that the cops were wearing tactical gear, as if ready to apprehend a dangerous fugitive. Earlier that day, Katie had got- ten an unexpected phone call from Lobins; they hadn’t talked in a long time. After Lobins casually men- tioned that he was heading over to the Walnut Room to celebrate his birthday, Katie passed the intel to Stoots. He rushed down to RiNo and recruited a friend to scope out the bar: Lobins was there. Stoots called the cops. And this time, they actually showed up. He could hardly believe it. Even more surprised was Lobins. He was thrown to the ground by the cops, handcuffed and hauled away to Denver County Jail, where he was booked on four felony counts. After a few days waiting in lockup, Lobins was able to see a judge and gain release on bond. For more than a month, I’d been sending emails and leaving mes- sages, asking Lobins for an inter- view; I’d never gotten a response. But then he called. The conversation began with Lobins saying that he had “no com- ment.” His attorney had explicitly instructed him to not speak to any reporter, he said. “I’m actually going against coun- sel advice,” he continued, his voice distraught. “I’m six-foot-two, 210 pounds — very big beard, full-size man, used to be an Army Ranger — and, yeah, I’m crying.” He was “mortifi ed” and “heartbroken” by his arrest and the circumstances that precipitated it: “While I’m being accused of being a piece of shit, I’m not,” he said. That was the start of an hour-long con- versation in which Lobins frequently inter- rupted himself with apologies for being overcome with emotion and admonish- ments to himself for talking. “Oh, God, my lawyer’s going to fucking hate me for doing this,” he admitted. But he kept talking. “I lost my best friend on this,” he said at one point. “Oh, God, I have to shut up.” A pause. He kept talking. What was his explanation for the miss- ing wealth fund money? His lack of proper licensing? The shifting explanations for not returning investments? Using the words “misunderstanding” and “other circumstances,” Lobins asserted that evidence would be “coming out in court” that he couldn’t share right now. “I will say this. I did not solicit anybody,” he added. “I was asked. Both the victims asked me to deploy their fi nances. It was not me soliciting. I was not goddamn Bernie Madoff, man. Like, I’m not.” He said he feared Deceit Street continued from page 12 continued on page 15 Stoots haunted Larimer for a sighting of Lobins, who was evading him on social media, too. COURTESY OF JARED STOOTS EVAN SEMÓN