COLORADO SPRINGS — Developer Ray Marshall was arrested Friday on two counts of theft and a racketeering charge for allegedly diverting more than $1 million in grant funds, which were intended to pay for remodeling of a downtown building into the headquarters of the U.S. Olympic Committee and two related projects.
Marshall, 47, was released from the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center after posting $50,000 bail. Formal criminal charges are expected to be filed Feb. 13, when Marshall is scheduled to appear before Judge Barney Iuppa.
Marshall already faces a March 19 trial on 15 securities-fraud charges and 18 other counts that include theft and racketeering. Iuppa will determine whether that trial will be delayed as a result of the new charges.
The latest charges apply only to Marshall, chairman of LandCo Equity Partners, a Colorado Springs development firm that renovated the U.S. Olympic Committee’s downtown headquarters, another building that houses Olympic-related organizations and a third building used by the USOC as temporary office space until the headquarters building was completed.
LandCo president James Brodie, Marshall’s co-defendant in the earlier case, was not included in the latest charges.
Marshall “repeatedly diverted funds to other unrelated real estate projects that his entities had an interest in, to the detriment of the projects the funds were intended,” according to an arrest warrant.
“Mr. Marshall’s use of multiple bank accounts to launder the funds to other real estate projects is a pattern of racketeering. Mr. Marshall, in diverting the funds, caused contractors to lien the property,” the arrest warrant said.
In addition, the warrant states, the city of Colorado Springs was forced to directly pay contractors more than $3.73 million in order to salvage the agreement with the USOC.
“Mr. Marshall has committed theft by deception, laundered the stolen proceeds to further his enterprise, LandCo LLC and its affiliates, and funded real estate purchases and developments unknown and unassociated with the projects the funds were intended,” the warrant says.
