Colin
Authorities in Denver have ordered the arrest of Steve Bachar, a longtime Clinton operative and “socially responsible” investor who has been charged with felony theft and securities fraud. The former co-chair of the Clinton Global Initiative is also under investigation for unrelated allegations that he mishandled millions of dollars allocated for personal protective equipment at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bachar is accused of stealing as much as $1 million and lying to an investor “in connection with the offer, sale or purchase of a security,” according to the criminal complaint filed by the Denver district attorney’s office. The crimes are alleged to have occurred between October 2017 and August 2018. The former Clinton operative told the Denver Post the criminal charges were “outrageous, unfounded, and false,” and he looks forward to letting “the facts come to light.”
Bachar, who served as White House advance lead and in the Treasury Department under former president Bill Clinton before joining the Clinton Global Initiative, also served on the national finance committee for Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign in 2016 and as an adviser to former governor John Hickenlooper (D., Colo.). His private sector career as a corporate attorney and cofounder of Empowerment Capital Management was focused on “socially responsible investing.”
This is not the first time the socially responsible investor has been accused of serious wrongdoing. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bachar allegedly pocketed nearly $2 million from health care companies that believed they were purchasing life-saving personal protective equipment such as masks and gowns.
According to a lawsuit filed by a Denver-based health care company, Bachar agreed to sell them 4,200 cases of N95 masks for $2.4 million in April 2020 but never delivered the masks and did not return their initial payment of $604,000. Over the summer, Bachar was ordered to pay nearly $4.5 million to the companies he allegedly defrauded but has yet to comply with the civil judgments against him.
In other words, a longtime Clinton associate was caught behaving like a longtime Clinton associate. It’s weird how this keeps happening.
A Denver attorney who last year was accused of mishandling nearly $2 million set aside to purchase masks and gowns during the coronavirus pandemic was charged with unrelated felony financial crimes last week and is now wanted by authorities.
A warrant was issued Oct. 18 for Steve Bachar, 56, on charges of securities fraud and theft. He is accused of stealing between $100,000 and $1 million, as well as lying to an investor, according to a criminal complaint filed against him by the Denver District Attorney’s Office.
The crimes are alleged to have happened between Oct. 13, 2017, and Aug. 8, 2018, according to the complaint.
“Steven Charles Bachar, in connection with the offer, sale or purchase of a security, directly or indirectly, unlawfully, feloniously and willfully made an untrue statement of material fact or omitted to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made… not misleading,” the complaint reads.
Additional details on the allegations were not immediately available.
“These are outrageous, unfounded and false accusations,” Bachar said in a texted statement Monday. “…I am pleased that we are now engaged in a process that will let the facts come to light.”
A spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Bachar is also under investigation from the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, according to information reviewed by the Denver Post. The agency oversees discipline for attorneys in Colorado. Attorney Regulation Counsel Jessica Yates declined to confirm or deny the investigation Monday.
Bachar was last year accused by two companies of mishandling nearly $2 million earmarked for personal protective equipment purchases during the pandemic.
Bachar had promised Denver-based DaVita Inc. that he would provide 4,200 cases of N95 masks in exchange for $2.4 million in April 2020, but then never provided the masks and failed to return the company’s initial payment of $604,000, according to that lawsuit, filed in October
Another company, The Future Health Company, filed a complaint in December that said Bachar failed to pay them $1.2 million for 3 million medical gowns that Future Health sent to the state of Wisconsin.
This summer, Bachar was ordered to pay the two companies nearly $4.5 million in two default civil judgments. A spokeswoman for The Future Health Company said Monday that the company has not received any money from Bachar, despite the judgment.
Bachar previously worked with Sen. John Hickenlooper, serving as counsel on Hickenlooper’s campaign for Denver mayor and on his transition team, according to a news release that detailed his career when he joined the Denver law firm Moye White in 2015. The firm said Bachar was a member of its business section before leaving in August 2017.
Bachar also served in the White House under President Bill Clinton and in the Treasury Department before he moved to Denver.
