To some in Denver, she was known as Christine Chandler, a successful California interior designer who was relocating her business to Denver.
To others, Christine Chandler said she was a successful and savvy Malibu real estate agent who had just moved to Denver after being awarded $8 million in a divorce settlement.
In reality, prosecutors said Chandler was Christine Speros, 48, a convicted felon who just served a term in the Colorado Department of Corrections for theft.
But her bright personality, her ability to talk like an interior designer, and her claims of personal wealth resulted in banks, business associates and Denver-area businesses being bilked out of $150,000 in a matter of months, prosecutors Melanie Names and Ken Laff said today.
It wasn’t her first brush with the law.
She had federal convictions for bank and tax fraud in Arizona in the early 1990s. More recently in a 1998 Jefferson County case, she swindled people out of $30,000 and a year later in Denver she embezzled $50,000 from an oil and gas company.
A Denver jury took just three hours today to convict Speros of 8 counts of theft, 8 counts of criminal impersonation and one count of unauthorized use of a financial transaction device.
The jury did so without being told of her criminal record which resulted in federal and state prison terms.
She could be sentenced to 294 years next month, although it is likely the sentence will be substantially lower.
As prosecutors and her attorney made their closing arguments to the jury, Speros remained absolutely calm, looking like the distinguished, poised businesswoman she claimed to be.
When the jury announced its verdict, Speros showed no emotion as she was led in handcuffs from the courtroom.
During the closing arguments, Names said Speros was a “person who lived an elaborate double life.
“In her double life she tricked bankers and business associates,” Names said. “Defense counsel claims she had a legitimate interior design business. This isn’t a case about style, it is about stealing. It isn’t about design but about deception.”
As far as her design business, Speros claimed she had $1.2 million in sales and $625,000 in assets.
She opened checking accounts at Compass Bank, Key Bank, Washington Mutual Bank and Bank One – all of which soon ran into trouble when there wasn’t enough money to cover the checks she wrote.
She leased expensive trucks; bought rugs, flowers arrangements, furniture and other merchandise from a host of businesses – with most of her checks bouncing, prosecutors said.
But Michael Vallejos, Speros’ lawyer, claimed that prosecutors simply wanted to stymie Speros’ venture into the free enterprise system.
They looked at Speros through a “lens of suspicion” that was unfair, Vallejos said.
“It was a business that didn’t work. That’s not theft,” Vallejos said. “This is a talented designer. She is doing design work.”
But Laff told the jury Speros wasn’t the victim. The victims were all those “left holding the bag,” he said.
“They supported Miss Speros’ lifestyle. She had the trappings of business. That’s how she looks – like a businesswoman so she can take people’s money. The trappings don’t matter. The actions matter,” Laff, said.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
