Colorado’s radio airwaves most weekend mornings teem with self-anointed financial experts telling you how to manage your money, when, in fact, some of them have had problems managing their own.
The personal backgrounds behind the voices of nearly a dozen financial radio program hosts are littered with little secrets that might give consumers pause before handing over their money.
The individuals, most of them local businessmen, have histories that include personal bankruptcies, federal and state income tax liens, investigations by federal and state regulators, allegations of Ponzi schemes, lawsuits by jilted clients, even the loss of a job because of questionable conduct, according to a Denver Post review of dozens of public records from a variety of agencies.
Although the radio hosts on Denver’s major AM stations might have some background in the financial-services sector, many are insurance salesmen peddling one plan or another, typically annuities — regulated in Colorado as an insurance product, not a security as in several other states.
Consumers who happen across the shows also might not realize that nearly all of them are paid advertisements — pitches for listeners to call for additional information about a product or seminar they’re offering.
“The concern is that what a consumer hears on the show might not be fully disclosed as to its risk,” said Fred Joseph, Colorado’s commissioner of securities. “Because they’re on the radio or quoted somewhere, it gives them credibility. The product they’re pitching has risk.”
14 show hosts vetted
The Post vetted 14 radio show hosts offering financial advice or opinions on major Denver metro-area stations. Some have no professional complaints against them or personal financial issues, according to records reviewed by The Post.
For example, Bob Brinker’s national ABC radio show, which airs locally Sunday mornings on KNUS (710 AM), has no discernible issues. The same goes for Chad Owen and Bret Roby’s “Safe Money Radio,” a locally produced show that broadcasts Sundays on KHOW (630 AM) and KKZN (760 AM).
But the others have at least one financial or professional issue that consumers might want to know about.
“The radio guys are different than the rest of the brokers and producers out there, reaching out to a bigger audience,” said John Postolowski, interim director of Colorado’s Division of Insurance, which regulates insurance producers and the products they sell.
“We’ve had some inquiries on a few of them, a consumer or even another agent complaining that they’re promising the world on the air,” he said. “But like anything else, consumers need to check things out before giving their money to anyone and decide for themselves once they have the information.”
Last year, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers sued the owners of Westminster-based Real Talk Network and its offshoot, the Institute of Consumer Economic Education, for fraud and misrepresentation.
David Burke, 43, of Brighton, and Erik Sale, 37, of Vail, are accused of using a paid half-hour and hour-long radio show on several Colorado AM and FM stations to host programs that promised to help people out of debt.
The case, pending in Adams County District Court, says dozens of people were taken in and alleged false and deceptive trade practices.
Sale signed a consent decree dismissing his portion of the lawsuit. Without admitting liability, Sale agreed never to work in the debt settlement, credit repair or debt-counseling business, but is not prohibited from working in the financial services industry.
Burke remains a defendant.
“I thought it was more like a talk show and was local and the station let them on,” said Jesse Wells, a heavy- equipment operator from Littleton who regularly listened to the show each Saturday morning, which is now off the air. “You naturally assume the station did the research on them and wouldn’t just let any Joe Schmo on the radio. It instantly gives it an air of credibility.”
Had Burke disclosed the two personal bankruptcies in his past, Wells said, it certainly would have given him pause before he bought into their program.
“If I had known, that would have been it for me,” Wells said.
A few bumps of his own
Karlan Tucker is an insurance salesman from Littleton whose successful company, Tucker Advisory Group, has a long-standing half-hour show he hosts Saturday mornings on KHOW.
His company website says Tucker has been “protecting and growing his clients’ assets since 1982.”
But Tucker has had a few bumps with his own finances, records show.
Among them were a personal bankruptcy from his time in Arizona in 1990 and a 2004 federal tax lien of nearly $49,000 for unpaid personal income taxes, according to federal court and state uniform commercial code filings.
The bankruptcy, Tucker said in a written response to questions, was the result of an employee who “embezzled a large sum of money” from an imprinted sportswear business he ran in Phoenix.
“I was unable to survive the incident,” he wrote.
In addition to the bankruptcy, Tucker said, he lost his home.
The tax lien, since paid off, was the IRS’s way of protecting itself as he set up a payment plan to cover additional taxes owed because of higher-than-expected income, Tucker said.
Although Tucker also trumpets how his company has “thrived on making a complex world of products and choices simple,” he has faced a handful of consumer complaints.
Some elderly clients who complained said it was Tucker’s smooth talk that pulled them in instead of the financial products he was selling.
“He was 100 percent sold on this (product) and he had sold these to his own elderly parents,” said Verla Jamison of Coronado, Calif., in a 2008 complaint to state investigators, who ultimately sided with Tucker.
“He was active in the Baptist Church, which led me to believe he had my best interest in mind and that I could trust him,” Jamison wrote.
Tucker said a conversation with Jamison cleared up any misunderstandings and she remains a client.
Efforts to reach Jamison for this story were unsuccessful.
Other clients told state regulators that Tucker’s financial explanations were hardly simple.
In November 2010, for example, 80-year-old Burton Dietel of Highlands Ranch complained that an annuity Tucker sold him a decade earlier wasn’t really what he expected.
“I did not understand the annuity,” Dietel wrote state insurance regulators. “This is not appropriate for a person of my age — and this is about 75 percent of my assets.”
The insurance division sided with Tucker, who said Dietel is still a client.
Efforts to verify the information with Dietel were unsuccessful.
Recently, Tucker was the focus of a state investigation into advertisement claims that a federal regulator had labeled as “exaggerated, unwarranted and misleading.”
Because Tucker is not a registered financial adviser or securities broker — he is licensed in Colorado as an insurance producer — the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, an independent regulator that partners with the Securities and Exchange Commission to police the sector, has no oversight. FINRA passed along its concerns about Tucker to state insurance regulators in June 2009, records show.
At issue were printed and broadcast claims that he was a “personal retirement adviser,” he was a “top 10 producer” and many of the products he backed had little risk.
All of it was true, his lawyer told state investigators, although his top-10 designation comes from an insurance trade group and from one of the companies he represents.
The state inquiry into Tucker’s radio shows, brochures and website information ended in January with no action other than a state warning that it was watching.
“Our world is full of risk; mitigating it to the best of our ability is wise,” Tucker wrote. “Not everything is in our control, like the man who embezzled from me.”
Regulators say proving any wrongdoing by any of the radio show advertisements is, most times, a challenge.
“It’s often very difficult since they are advertising pieces and they toe the line right to the very edge,” said Paula Sisneros, the insurance division’s director of compliance and investigations. “They’ll not cross it, and most times the broadcast is offering very little in the form of any concrete information.”
Telling listeners about his past financial history is not pertinent, Tucker said.
“They are not material to the opinions I express or to my credibility,” he wrote.
“Alternatives out there”
David Harper II is a self-styled financial expert whose radio persona gives the air of having few rivals.
His hour-long “Money Matters Network” show — he incorporated the name in 2008 — airs Saturday mornings on KNUS.
“What I’m about is sending something out into the world that creates value,” Harper said during a 2009 video clip posted to his website.
He said his show is designed to “let people know there are other alternatives out there than the standard pipelines.”
By that he means annuities, rather than stocks and other securities, he said.
He has a book, too, and if you read it, he says, “I can start coaching you about economics and economic certainty.”
But records show Harper, who owns Cornerstone Financial Consultants, has had a couple of brushes with securities regulators. He also has not been a licensed investment adviser since 2009, even though his website and that of KNUS make the claim that he still is.
Harper at first said his website is about “six months out of date,” but then he said he should “probably be sure that’s taken down,” referring to the adviser designation.
By Friday, the KNUS reference had been removed, but the one on his website remained.
Records show he has been accused by consumers of a variety of misconduct ranging from forged signatures to misrepresenting investment policies.
Records show that the forgery complaint was dismissed for lack of evidence and the misrepresentation case was settled — both instances Harper said were “closed matters.”
Harper has also been fired for violating company policies at one job and he resigned from another, both of them securities firms. Harper characterized his dismissal and resignation as differences of opinion.
“They wanted to be representing stocks and variable annuities, and I told them I wanted to continue to do my radio show,” Harper said of his time at Park Avenue Securities, from which he was fired in 2008.
State records show Harper had not told the company about his radio appearances — a federal requirement — and when company representatives visited his office to investigate, they found business cards that elevated him to “senior partner” of one of its affiliates when, in fact, he was merely a field rep.
He had also sold unapproved securities, according to company letters filed with state insurance regulators.
Harper would only describe the complaints as “a parting of the ways” and that he refuses to sell securities as a result.
“As an economist, I won’t buy them, I won’t represent them,” he said.
Harper also was a registered representative for Envision Investment Advisors, a Nebraska company charged by the SEC in 2009 with misappropriating nearly $775,000 of client assets. The company’s principal, Ryan Jindra, is accused of lavish personal spending from a $42 million fund raised from clients.
The money was largely obtained from recruiting insurance agents such as Harper who in turn recruited clients with money to invest, the SEC alleged.
Although Harper is not named in the SEC complaint, he represented Envision from June 2008 through July 2009, the period the SEC said Jindra was allegedly swiping funds from clients.
“I never wrote any business for them,” Harper said flatly. “They went out of business without telling any of us.”
Confusion among listeners
Some listeners say they’re confused about the shows they hear, surprised to learn the talk show they thought they were listening to was actually a paid advertisement.
It becomes even more difficult to tell the difference when the show is booked in the same time slot week after week, regulators say.
“The format they use, they sound like someone having a conversation with someone else, and it helps it make sense, to draw you in,” said Jon Danley, a retired state employee who said he has listened to more than a few of the shows peddling a number of financial products or retirement solutions.
“I’m a reasonably intelligent person, and I kick myself around the block for believing them,” he said.
Shows that pay for the airtime are known as “payola” by the Federal Communications Commission, which has strict rules for stations to follow about identifying them to listeners.
The typical disclaimer — aired by the station at the start of a show and at the end or middle — tells listeners it’s a paid advertisement and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of the station ownership.
But listeners who tune in at the middle of a program might not hear the disclaimer. With “guests” and radiolike banter, a commercial can suddenly take on the feel of a regular broadcast.
“There are a lot of things that make me queasy about these kind of radio shows,” insurance director Postolowski said. “You hear certain things that just make you stop for a moment.”
Most of the shows airing in the metro Denver market don’t rank among those with a high number of listeners, according to Arbitron rating information.
As such, the number of listeners is not tracked closely, although it’s known that the audience consists mostly of adults over 54 years old, according to the rating information.
Stations say they’re careful about who they let on the airwaves, checking backgrounds when necessary. How deep that check goes, though, remains unclear.
“These are ‘brokered’ shows; they pay for airtime and always include disclaimers saying it is a paid advertisement,” said Angel Aristone, a spokesman for Clear Channel Communications, which owns several radio stations in Denver, including KHOW, KKZN and KOA (850 AM), and airs several of the shows.
“When it comes to vetting the shows, we research each advertiser and also make sure they are legitimate with regard to their topic,” Aristone said.
A spokesman for Salem Media of Colorado Inc., owners of KNUS, did not respond to e-mailed questions about their practices.
Help with the message
National shows aren’t immune from the sting of a person’s past. “America’s Wealth Management Show” airs locally at noon Saturdays on KHOW and nationally on dozens of stations.
Hosted by Dean Barber — whose real name is Frank Dean Barber — the show relies on local on-air advisers to help with the message.
“There really are some on the radio who people shouldn’t listen to,” said Barber, a resident of Kansas City, Kan. “A lot of shows out there are being done by people who . . . are simply insurance salesmen trying to make a case to come in and buy annuities. Some things they say are misleading.”
Barber’s own background, though, has a few of its own dings, investigations he characterizes as unfair or unbalanced.
In 2007, for example, a FINRA mediator ruled Barber liable for $168,000 to a husband and wife from Missouri who said they bought into financial products unsuitable for them or their company. Barber told FINRA he had never misrepresented any product to anyone.
A registered securities broker, Barber has an assortment of other complaints going back years, according to FINRA records. Some were deemed justified or settled; others were not.
In 2009, he paid half of a $15,000 settlement between ING Financial Partners and customers who said Barber concealed material information about variable annuities, FINRA records show.
And there’s a pending dispute with a consumer who complained in March of losing $225,000. Because the case is open, details are unavailable.
“My issues were a huge learning curve, such as a situation where I tried to do everything right and end up with a blemish and judgment for no other reason than guilt by association,” Barber said. “For the hundreds of clients I’ve handled and millions of dollars I’ve managed and the positive impact I’ve had on hundreds of families’ lives, the positive far outweighs any of the BS that I’ve had from a handful of complaints.”
One of Barber’s local show advisers is Gary Hansen, president of Financial Strategies of Colorado, who co-hosts a segment of the show Saturday nights on Greeley’s KFKA (1310 AM).
A resident of Berthoud, Hansen, 59, has been in the financial services industry for years and “surrounds himself with a staff of capable and friendly professionals . . . anxious to help him,” Barber’s website touts.
Nevertheless, Hansen has also seen a couple of FINRA complaints alleging misconduct that were settled for various amounts of money.
No longer a registered securities broker or investment adviser, FINRA records show, Hansen is currently named as a defendant in an SEC complaint filed in Utah federal district court. It alleges he and eight other individuals were part of a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, court records show.
The SEC says Hansen helped funnel more than $3.7 million of investor funds into accounts controlled by Thomas Fry, a convicted felon and securities law recidivist living in Utah.
The SEC said Hansen and the other promoters who brought in the money were as bad as Fry, who allegedly took it. “The promoters not only conducted virtually no due diligence in connection with Fry’s purported investment opportunities,” they gave him unrestricted access to investor money and “were reckless” in not discovering the money was tied up in a Ponzi scheme.
Through his attorney, Hansen refused to comment. Officials at KFKA did not return e-mail and telephone messages seeking comment.
Barber said he was unaware of the lawsuit and, although he said he’s careful to check the background of advisers he takes on — “I want to see their practice and understand their decision process,” he said — he never checked Hansen’s record with FINRA, where the SEC case is prominently listed.
The SEC case against Hansen is pending.
David Migoya: 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com
Money troubles
The Securities and Exchange Commission and local authorities have investigated a number of radio hosts:
2009: The SEC charges a Minneapolis money manager and radio host of “Follow the Money” with running a Ponzi scheme that netted them more than $190 million from about 1,000 people. The show was broadcast in more than 200 markets and on Christian shortwave radio.
June 2010: Quincy, Mass., financial adviser Gregg Rennie, who used his “Your Money” radio talk show to steal more than $3 million from clients, is sentenced to seven years in prison.
October 2010: The SEC charges national radio host Barbra Alexander with using her “MoneyDots” show to lure investors into buying into a loan scheme that actually funded her lifestyle, including $200,000 for a remodeled kitchen.
Who’s on the air
Some of the hosts doing financial shows on major radio stations in the Denver metro area (all shows are one hour except where indicated):
Frank Dean Barber
“America’s Wealth Management Show With Dean Barber”
Station and time slot: KHOW (630 AM), noon Saturday
Financial credentials: Federally registered investment adviser representative and securities broker; owner of Barber Financial Group in Kansas City, Kan.
Findings: Settled Financial Industry Regulatory Authority consumer complaints; Kansas income-tax lien ($700) released
Comment: “It’s not like someone’s keeping secrets. A good consumer should know who they’re doing business with. You won’t find anyone out there who’s high-profile, who’s trying to help people, who won’t have some kind of a blemish.”
Adam Bold
“The Mutual Fund Show With Adam Bold”
Station and time slot: KOA (850 AM), 9 a.m. Saturday
Financial credentials: Federally registered investment adviser representative; chief executive of The Mutual Fund Store
Findings: FINRA consumer complaints; fired in 1996 from Prudential Securities for violating company policy on sales practices and firm’s “core values” (Bold had contested the reason)
Comment: “In hindsight, it was a very good day. It gave me the guts to found The Mutual Fund Store. We’ve never had a single regulatory action since. That history speaks more than anything Prudential has said.”
Bob Brinker
“Money Talk With Bob Brinker”
Station and time slot: KNUS (710 AM), 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday
Financial credentials: Former stock broker; former vice president at Bank of New York; former chief investment officer at U.S. Division at Guardian Royal Exchange in London; founder of BJ Group
Findings: None
Bryan Gray
“Money Talks Presented by Alpine Planning Group”
Station and time slot: KNUS, 11 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday
Financial credentials: Federally registered investment adviser representative; state licensed insurance producer; owner of Alpine Planning Group
Findings: IRS tax liens ($58,289 and $8,323) released and withdrawn; Colorado income-tax liens ($14,876 and $3,839) released; FINRA consumer complaints denied
Comment: “These issues have been resolved. One of the benefits of the financial services sector is its transparency, and I encourage consumers to do their research before hiring a financial adviser. The radio show does not give tax or legal advice, it is intended to be educational.”
Troy Hamsher
“Dollars and Sense”
Station and time slot: KKZN (760 AM), 10:30 a.m. Saturday
Financial credentials: State licensed insurance producer; owner of The Hamsher Group
Findings: IRS tax liens ($4,363 and $7,710) released.
Comment: “The tax liens were due to a dispute that was ultimately settled and paid in full.”
Gary Hansen
Adviser on “America’s Wealth Management Show With Dean Barber”
Station and time slot: KFKA (1310 AM), 6 p.m. Saturday
Financial credentials: Partner in Financial Strategies of Colorado in Loveland; former investment adviser representative
Findings: Settled FINRA consumer complaints; defendant in Securities and Exchange Commission complaint in Utah federal court alleging Ponzi scheme
Comment: Declined to comment
David Harper II
“Money Matters Network With David Harper”
Station and time slot: KNUS, 9 a.m. Saturday
Financial credentials: State licensed insurance producer; owner of Cornerstone Financial Consultants
Findings: Fired in 2008 from Park Avenue Securities; FINRA and state consumer complaints, denied or settled; registered with Envision Investment Advisors at the time SEC alleges it committed fraud
Comment: “Park Avenue wanted me representing stocks and variable annuities and to stop my radio show. We had a parting of the ways.”
Matthew Klaess, Dan Gay and Erik Krom
“The Future of Money”
Station and time slot: KHOW, 8 a.m. Saturday
Financial credentials: State licensed insurance producers; Klaess owns American Guaranty Financial Group
Findings: $1.9 million judgment against Stonecreek Funding, former company of Klaess’, for breach of lease; IRS tax liens against Klaess ($22,335, $12,500 and $813) released
Comment: “I was a 46 percent partner and sold all my shares and was removed from all personal guarantees except for the office space lease. It was settled and paid. The IRS liens were due to a schedule not filed, and once we were notified, they were all paid the following day.”
Chad Owen and Bret Roby
“Safe Money Radio”
Station and time slot: KHOW, 8 a.m. Sunday; KKZN, 9:30 a.m. Sunday
Financial credentials: State licensed insurance producers; principals at Eagle Shadow Financial in Thornton
Findings: None
Christopher Ravsten
“Foxstone Financial”
Station and time slot: KNUS, 8 and 10 a.m. Saturday
Financial credentials: Federally registered securities broker and investment adviser representative; owner of Foxstone Financial
Findings: IRS tax liens ($90,315 and $6,072) released
Comment: “The first (lien) we paid; the second is in dispute. It’s not pertinent to what I do since I believe people should pay as little tax as possible. Get sideways with the IRS, they can do what they want and no one can stop them.”
Karlan Tucker
“Tucker Advisory Group”
Station and time slot: KHOW, 6:30 to 7 a.m. Saturday
Financial credentials: State licensed insurance producer; owner of Tucker Advisory Group
Findings: Personal bankruptcy in 1990; IRS tax lien ($49,000) released; state consumer complaints settled.
Comment: “After several on-time payments, the IRS filed a lien to protect its position. I paid off the balance.”
Sources: Denver Post research and interviews
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, the information regarding Erik Sale was incorrect. Erik Sale of Vail
signed a consent decree with the Colorado attorney general’s office
dismissing his portion of a lawsuit alleging false and deceptive
trade practices. Without admitting liability, Sale agreed never to
work in the debt settlement, credit repair or debt-counseling
business, but is not prohibited from working in the financial
services industry.
