Breckenridge condo project collapses in debt
The Denver Post
DP | THE DENVER POST
An Austrian businessman has been ordered to pay $62 million to a Colorado developer, professional golfer Jesper Parnevik and another investor in a Breckenridge condominium deal that collapsed in debt.
But Erwin Lasshofer, a resident of Salzburg, apparently has no intention of paying, despite mounting fines of $10,000 a day, a warrant for his arrest for contempt of court and the wrath of an increasingly frustrated federal judge.
“Suffice it to say that this was a first in this court’s experience,” U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson of Denver wrote in an order in April.
Jackson also ordered Lasshofer to pay $10,000 a day until he ponies up $2.18 million to Parnevik, developer John Niemi and Robert Naegele, a third partner. That tab reached $820,000 on Sunday, but Lasshofer has ignored every order issued by Jackson. Kevin Evans, Lasshofer’s lawyer, said Lasshofer has no U.S. assets that could be seized.
It is unlikely that the arrest warrant will lead to Lasshofer’s extradition, said former Denver District Court Judge Christina Habas, a lawyer with Keating Wagner Polidori Free. “Even though it is a criminal process, it is in a civil case. Now, if he was under indictment …”
Evans said the plaintiffs — Niemi, Parnevik and Naegele — have no grounds for their lawsuit, and have misled the judge. Lasshofer’s lawyers also say Jackson lacks jurisdiction in the case, and they are appealing the judgment.
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