A Denver attorney who last year was accused of mishandling nearly $2 million set aside to purchase masks and gowns during the coronavirus pandemic was charged with unrelated felony financial crimes last week and is now wanted by authorities.
A warrant was issued Oct. 18 for Steve Bachar, 56, on charges of securities fraud and theft. He is accused of stealing between $100,000 and $1 million, as well as lying to an investor, according to a criminal complaint filed against him by the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
The crimes are alleged to have happened between Oct. 13, 2017, and Aug. 8, 2018, according to the complaint.
“Steven Charles Bachar, in connection with the offer, sale or purchase of a security, directly or indirectly, unlawfully, feloniously, and willfully made an untrue statement of material fact or omitted to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made…not misleading,” the complaint reads. Additional details on the allegations were not immediately available.
“These are outrageous, unfounded and false accusations,” Bachar said in a texted statement Monday. “…I am pleased that we are now engaged in a process that will let the facts come to light.”
A spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Bachar was last year accused by two companies of mishandling nearly $2 million earmarked for personal protective equipment purchases during the pandemic.
Bachar had promised Denver-based DaVita Inc. that he would provide 4,200 cases of N95 masks in exchange for $2.4 million in April 2020, but then never provided the masks and failed to return the company’s initial payment of $604,000, according to that lawsuit, filed in October
Another company, The Future Health Company, filed a complaint in December that said Bachar failed to pay them $1.2 million for 3 million medical gowns that Future Health sent to the state of Wisconsin.
This summer, Bachar and was ordered to pay the two companies nearly $4.5 million in two default civil judgments. A spokeswoman for The Future Health Company said Monday that the company has not received any money from Bachar, despite the judgment.
Bachar previously worked with Sen.-elect John Hickenlooper, serving as counsel on Hickenlooper’s campaign for Denver mayor and on his transition team, according to a news release that detailed his career when he joined the Denver law firm Moye White in 2015. The firm said Bachar was a member of its business section before leaving in August 2017.
Bachar also served in the White House under President Bill Clinton and in the Treasury Department before he moved to Denver.
