Andre Holliday, the North Cherry Creek clothier arrested this week in connection with a tax-refund scam, was released by authorities today and will not be charged with a crime, the Denver District Attorney’s office said.
Holliday, owner of the upscale Clothing by Andre at Third Avenue and St. Paul Street, was being held on $10 million bail.
He was arrested Saturday, along with a Colorado Department of Revenue supervisor, Michelle Cawthra, on suspicion of diverting several million dollars in state funds through phony tax refunds.
DA Mitch Morrissey announced today that Cawthra would be charged with 27 felony counts, including violating the state’s Organized Crime Act, theft, embezzlement of public property, two counts of computer-crime conspiracy and 18 counts of forgery.
A third person, Hysear Randell, Cawthra’s boyfriend and an acquaintance of Holliday’s, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the tax refunds.
Cawthra and Randell each are being held on $10 million bail.
“New information developed (during the investigation) & does not contradict Holliday’s claims that he did not participate in the thefts,” Morrissey said in a prepared statement.
Holliday’s lawyer, M. Colin Bresee, said his client was never aware of the alleged tax-refund scam.
“There’s a lot of evidence that his business accounts were used,” Bresee said. “But at no point did he ever have any knowledge his accounts were being used. He never had any access to the money and never had any control of this money.”
Bresee praised the DA’s office for releasing Holliday.
“The DA stepped up to the plate. They spent hundreds of hours going over the records to take steps to clear his name. That’s not the way things normally work. This is the rare exception. And Holliday is cooperating fully.”
