An IndieDwell crew builds dorms at the College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho, on March 11, 2020. (Facebook)
IndieDwell Colorado, a manufacturer of modular homes, is being investigated to determine whether it defrauded taxpayers, according to recently unsealed court records.
In March, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office subpoenaed eight computers and four tablets at the company’s offices in Pueblo. When IndieDwell Colorado did not comply, the AG’s Office asked Denver District Court Judge Eric Elliff to enforce that subpoena on June 26.
“The property in question is material to an investigation under the Colorado False Claims Act,” Elliff wrote in an order a few hours later, “and no impairment of business activities will result from the court granting the application without first hearing from IndieDwell Colorado.”
“The court also finds that the state has carried its burden of showing that reasonable grounds exist for an order enforcing its subpoena on IndieDwell Colorado,” he said.
Created by the General Assembly in 2022, the Colorado False Claims Act added enforcement tools and enhanced the penalties for defrauding government programs. The law applies only to state and local government funding; a federal law is used in cases of federal dollars.
Elliff’s order was unsealed soon after he signed it but other documents in the case, including the subpoena, will remain hidden from the press and public because they “contain highly sensitive law enforcement information,” according to the judge, who has reviewed them.
IndieDwell uses old shipping containers in its builds. (Facebook)
Assistant Attorney General Ben Gillig from the False Claims Unit is prosecuting the case and fraud investigator Shelly Sartor is probing, court records show. An agency spokesman declined to say when its investigation began or what funding may have been misspent.
IndieDwell, which did not respond to repeated emails and messages from BusinessDen, is based in Idaho and has two factories in California as well. IndieDwell Colorado has had financial and legal problems for years, as the Pueblo Chieftain has reported.
The company received incentives from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and the Pueblo Economic Development Corp., along with grants from several nonprofits, to open a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in 2019. That shut down in April 2023 and remains closed today. In May 2023, its top executives departed.
Last summer, Habitat for Humanity of Archuleta County sued IndieWell Colorado for not building three homes that it had paid $101,000 for. IndieWell Colorado ignored the lawsuit, so a judge ordered IndieWell Colorado to refund the money. It has paid only $8,000 to date.
In March of this year, IndieDwell was similarly instructed to pay $38,000 after ignoring a lawsuit from a lumber supplier. Two months later, it was ordered to pay $229,000 to the Colorado Enterprise Fund, which had loaned it money. Then, in May, it was sued by a building materials supplier in Colorado Springs, which claims it is owed $95,000. That case is ongoing.
On June 26, just two hours before Judge Elliff’s order, IndieDwell Colorado filed paperwork with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office dissolving the company. The lawyer who filed it, Melanie Bartlett at Fairfield & Woods in Denver, didn’t return calls for comment.
An IndieDwell crew builds dorms at the College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho, on March 11, 2020. (Facebook)
IndieDwell Colorado, a manufacturer of modular homes, is being investigated to determine whether it defrauded taxpayers, according to recently unsealed court records.
In March, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office subpoenaed eight computers and four tablets at the company’s offices in Pueblo. When IndieDwell Colorado did not comply, the AG’s Office asked Denver District Court Judge Eric Elliff to enforce that subpoena on June 26.
“The property in question is material to an investigation under the Colorado False Claims Act,” Elliff wrote in an order a few hours later, “and no impairment of business activities will result from the court granting the application without first hearing from IndieDwell Colorado.”
“The court also finds that the state has carried its burden of showing that reasonable grounds exist for an order enforcing its subpoena on IndieDwell Colorado,” he said.
Created by the General Assembly in 2022, the Colorado False Claims Act added enforcement tools and enhanced the penalties for defrauding government programs. The law applies only to state and local government funding; a federal law is used in cases of federal dollars.
Elliff’s order was unsealed soon after he signed it but other documents in the case, including the subpoena, will remain hidden from the press and public because they “contain highly sensitive law enforcement information,” according to the judge, who has reviewed them.
IndieDwell uses old shipping containers in its builds. (Facebook)
Assistant Attorney General Ben Gillig from the False Claims Unit is prosecuting the case and fraud investigator Shelly Sartor is probing, court records show. An agency spokesman declined to say when its investigation began or what funding may have been misspent.
IndieDwell, which did not respond to repeated emails and messages from BusinessDen, is based in Idaho and has two factories in California as well. IndieDwell Colorado has had financial and legal problems for years, as the Pueblo Chieftain has reported.
The company received incentives from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and the Pueblo Economic Development Corp., along with grants from several nonprofits, to open a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in 2019. That shut down in April 2023 and remains closed today. In May 2023, its top executives departed.
Last summer, Habitat for Humanity of Archuleta County sued IndieWell Colorado for not building three homes that it had paid $101,000 for. IndieWell Colorado ignored the lawsuit, so a judge ordered IndieWell Colorado to refund the money. It has paid only $8,000 to date.
In March of this year, IndieDwell was similarly instructed to pay $38,000 after ignoring a lawsuit from a lumber supplier. Two months later, it was ordered to pay $229,000 to the Colorado Enterprise Fund, which had loaned it money. Then, in May, it was sued by a building materials supplier in Colorado Springs, which claims it is owed $95,000. That case is ongoing.
On June 26, just two hours before Judge Elliff’s order, IndieDwell Colorado filed paperwork with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office dissolving the company. The lawyer who filed it, Melanie Bartlett at Fairfield & Woods in Denver, didn’t return calls for comment.
