Women accused of stealing $4.5 million from investors in Idaho Springs resort project indicted on federal charges

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A federal grand jury has indicted two women accused of running a title company that absconded with a $4.5 million deposit made in 2020 by an investment group planning a gondola-anchored resort and village at the Argo Mill in Idaho Springs.

“One of our big hurdles in getting new money is having to explain the theft and the lawsuit,” said Mary Jane Loevlie, whose Mighty Argo Cable Car Group sued the owners of Virginia-based First Title Inc. in April 2021 after the owners of that company allegedly took the group’s escrow deposit and used it to buy real estate and cars. “People are like, who are you that you got $4.5 million stolen?”

The Argo investors were not alone. A federal grand jury on Nov. 9 indicted Chrisheena Shante McGee and Sandra Pierce Bacon — the owners and operators of First Title Inc. — on charges that they stole $14.8 million in escrow deposits in 2019 and 2020 from 10 different individuals and businesses 

“Whenever I asked the FBI what was going on, they told me they had a lot of trails to follow,” Loevlie said. “The longer it took, the more I was surmising this was a much bigger deal than just us.”

A U.S. District Court judge in September 2022 awarded the Argo investment group $8.7 million in a civil case against McGee, 47, and Bacon, 71, ruling the two “purposely defrauded the plaintiff out of millions of dollars” and “took numerous steps to cover up their fraud.”

Those steps include, for example, sending forged documents, including a doctored First Title bank statement where a “$7,1” was added to a bank account that held $20,803.89, so it showed that the company had $7,120,803.89. The criminal indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado said the two women transferred escrow deposits from customers of First Title into their personal accounts or to other victims who were demanding their money back. The indictment says McGhee spent nearly $199,000 on real estate, a $91,000 BMW and a Cadillac Escalade.

An Aspen investor cited in the indictment lost $1.25 million to the First Title scheme in 2019 and that investor sued the two women in July 2020 in a Texas District Court. When the Argo group sued and demanded paperwork from the owners of First Title, McGee and Bacon responded by pleading for protection against self-incrimination provided by the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. U.S. District Judge Regina M. Rodriguez in January 2022 ordered the two women and First Title to respond, because corporations do not have rights under the Fifth Amendment. 

The two women never responded and Rodriguez awarded the Argo investors $4.36 million in actual damages and $4.36 million in punitive damages. So far the Argo group has received $37,000 from the two women, Loevlie said. The 12 charges outlined in the indictment — which involve wire fraud — each carry a possible sentence of 20 years in prison.

“If they are faced with jail, maybe they can find the money,” Loevlie said. 

Developer and businesswoman Mary Jane Loevlie answers questions during the Mighty Argo Cable Car gondola project, which she and other developers are spearheading at the historic Argo Gold Mill and Tunnel, during an event at Beau Jo’s Colorado Style Pizza in Wednesday, November 13, 2019. (Andy Colwell, Special to the Colorado Sun)

The Argo plan is still underway as the group secures new lenders. The plan calls for a 1.2-mile scenic gondola climbing from the Argo Mill site on the banks of Clear Creek in Idaho Springs up to the 450-acre Virginia Canyon Mountain Park. The group plans to develop a hotel, homes and commercial village around the Argo Mill, which processed $2.6 trillion worth of gold between1893 and 1943. (It’s that massive red structure you can see from Interstate 70 as you drive through Idaho Springs.)

The Argo investors hope to have news on their delayed project soon. The indictment of McGee and Bacon doesn’t really matter much anymore, Loevlie said, but it helps to show outsiders how the group was swindled. 

“I spoke with Chrisheena more than once. She would explain delays, saying ‘Oh it’s the polar vortex in Texas’ or ‘the money is coming in from Europe but everything is delayed because of COVID.’ They spoke with our CFO and our attorney all the time,” Loevlie said. “I want them in jail so badly, I can’t even tell you.”