Colorado Gold Mart, 1124 S. Colorado Blvd. in Glendale, is seen on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
An upscale pawn shop along Colorado Boulevard is being sold off by its receiver after a retired judge witnessed “bizarre” behavior from its owners, including surveillance that “bears substantial resemblance to the oppressive actions of agents of the former Soviet Union.”
Colorado Gold Mart, at 1124 S. Colorado Blvd. in Glendale, first opened in 1991. It is owned by Eran Feller and Dan Levy, Israeli immigrants who have been suing each other for two years.
“This litigation needs to come to an end,” arbitrator Michael Berger bemoaned in January. “The amount of money spent by both parties on this litigation really is unbelievable.”
Berger, who was a judge on the Colorado Court of Appeals before retiring in 2022, was hired by Feller and Levy to sort out their competing allegations, which included replacing stolen money in the store’s safe with Post-it notes and spending company cash on expensive meals.
After hearing a week of testimony, Berger determined that Feller and Levy could not operate the store “given the strife” between them. He handed control to The Receiver Group, which was ordered to find a buyer for the company. “I see no viable alternative,” he wrote.
“Appointment of a receiver often results in the complete destruction of the going concern value of a business, and I have no illusions that that will not happen here,” he said.
The former judge found that Feller, who lives in Greenwood Village and runs the shop, was to receive $4,000 per month as a salary, which acted as an advance of his 50-percent share of company profits, but had actually paid himself $4,600 per month for nearly five years. Some of those payments came directly out of a company safe, memorialized by sticky notes.
Eran Feller, co-owner of Colorado Gold Mart. (Courtesy Diamond and Jewelry Buyers)
“Certainly, the documentation of removal of substantial amounts of company cash by Post-it note is not a generally accepted business practice and may well run afoul of federal and state tax laws,” Berger found, calling it a “bizarre and almost certainly improper method.”
There were also “blatant misuses of Colorado Gold Mart funds” by Feller, including for meals, airline tickets, Apple products, hotel stays, taxes and immigration fees. Berger ordered Feller to return $133,000 in misappropriated money to Colorado Gold Mart as a result.
“Feller’s concession in his post-hearing brief that he did not run the business ‘perfectly’ may well be the understatement of this new year 2024,” the arbitrator wrote on Jan. 26.
Levy was not without fault, however. After he came to believe that his business partner was stealing, Levy “executed a self-help remedy,” as Berger put it, and began taking company property. Levy, who lives in Arizona, also tried managing and surveilling the store from afar.
“Worse, he engaged in a type of surveillance of Mr. Feller in the store that bears substantial resemblance to the oppressive actions of agents of the former Soviet Union,” Berger wrote.
Court records show that Feller filed for a protection order last December, claiming that Levy had come to their shop and threatened both Feller and his family, specifically a sister in Israel “because he knows where she lives.” Feller later dropped the matter.
Berger ultimately rejected both sides’ accusations of theft, though Feller’s misuse of the company’s credit cards made it “a close question,” according to the arbitrator.
“In the end, I do not believe that either Mr. Feller or Mr. Levy is a thief,” he determined.
Feller was awarded $98,000 that he had loaned to the store, along with half of the future profits from the sale of Colorado Gold Mart. He was ordered to pay back $33,000 from his excess salary, $2,200 he’d spent on Apple products and the $133,000 in misused money.
Dan Levy, co-owner of Colorado Gold Mart. (YouTube)
Levy was awarded $108,000 he had loaned to the store, plus his half of the sale proceeds. He was also ordered to return company merchandise that he had taken from the store.
“I think rough justice will have been achieved when the arbitration awards I have entered are satisfied,” Berger said. “That is all that can reasonably be expected.”
Unsurprisingly, the sale of Colorado Gold Mart has not gone smoothly and is the source of more allegations among its co-owners. The Receiver Group decided a sale to either Feller or Levy would garner the highest price, so it held a closed auction between them over the summer. It then wrote to a Denver judge, “Mr. Levy’s bid was materially better than that of Mr. Feller.”
Feller said that’s not true, the auction was rigged and the sale must now be stopped.
Levy’s $564,000 bid was primarily made up of money he is owed by the company, known as a credit bid, and he was allowed to use $105,000 from the company’s bank account as a down payment on his purchase. Both acts broke the auction’s rules, Feller alleged.
Feller said he was willing to pay $425,000 in cash and Levy’s bid included only $45,000 in cash, so Feller should have been declared the winner. Levy maintains he won the auction fairly.
“What is unfair is that for nearly two years now, (Feller and an LLC of his) have acted purely in their own interests with blatant disregard for Colorado Gold Mart, intentionally creating chaos in an effort to run up fees and costs to (Levy) and CGM while they continue to try to game the system and avoid liability for Feller’s misdeeds,” Levy’s attorney wrote Sept. 20.
Denver District Court Judge Martin Egelhoff has not said when he will decide the matter.
Feller is represented by the attorneys Michael Rollin and Lindsey Idelberg with Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher in Denver. They declined to comment on the case this week.
Levy’s lawyer is Cara Thornton at Fortis Law Partners, who also declined to comment.
Colorado Gold Mart, 1124 S. Colorado Blvd. in Glendale, is seen on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
An upscale pawn shop along Colorado Boulevard is being sold off by its receiver after a retired judge witnessed “bizarre” behavior from its owners, including surveillance that “bears substantial resemblance to the oppressive actions of agents of the former Soviet Union.”
Colorado Gold Mart, at 1124 S. Colorado Blvd. in Glendale, first opened in 1991. It is owned by Eran Feller and Dan Levy, Israeli immigrants who have been suing each other for two years.
“This litigation needs to come to an end,” arbitrator Michael Berger bemoaned in January. “The amount of money spent by both parties on this litigation really is unbelievable.”
Berger, who was a judge on the Colorado Court of Appeals before retiring in 2022, was hired by Feller and Levy to sort out their competing allegations, which included replacing stolen money in the store’s safe with Post-it notes and spending company cash on expensive meals.
After hearing a week of testimony, Berger determined that Feller and Levy could not operate the store “given the strife” between them. He handed control to The Receiver Group, which was ordered to find a buyer for the company. “I see no viable alternative,” he wrote.
“Appointment of a receiver often results in the complete destruction of the going concern value of a business, and I have no illusions that that will not happen here,” he said.
The former judge found that Feller, who lives in Greenwood Village and runs the shop, was to receive $4,000 per month as a salary, which acted as an advance of his 50-percent share of company profits, but had actually paid himself $4,600 per month for nearly five years. Some of those payments came directly out of a company safe, memorialized by sticky notes.
Eran Feller, co-owner of Colorado Gold Mart. (Courtesy Diamond and Jewelry Buyers)
“Certainly, the documentation of removal of substantial amounts of company cash by Post-it note is not a generally accepted business practice and may well run afoul of federal and state tax laws,” Berger found, calling it a “bizarre and almost certainly improper method.”
There were also “blatant misuses of Colorado Gold Mart funds” by Feller, including for meals, airline tickets, Apple products, hotel stays, taxes and immigration fees. Berger ordered Feller to return $133,000 in misappropriated money to Colorado Gold Mart as a result.
“Feller’s concession in his post-hearing brief that he did not run the business ‘perfectly’ may well be the understatement of this new year 2024,” the arbitrator wrote on Jan. 26.
Levy was not without fault, however. After he came to believe that his business partner was stealing, Levy “executed a self-help remedy,” as Berger put it, and began taking company property. Levy, who lives in Arizona, also tried managing and surveilling the store from afar.
“Worse, he engaged in a type of surveillance of Mr. Feller in the store that bears substantial resemblance to the oppressive actions of agents of the former Soviet Union,” Berger wrote.
Court records show that Feller filed for a protection order last December, claiming that Levy had come to their shop and threatened both Feller and his family, specifically a sister in Israel “because he knows where she lives.” Feller later dropped the matter.
Berger ultimately rejected both sides’ accusations of theft, though Feller’s misuse of the company’s credit cards made it “a close question,” according to the arbitrator.
“In the end, I do not believe that either Mr. Feller or Mr. Levy is a thief,” he determined.
Feller was awarded $98,000 that he had loaned to the store, along with half of the future profits from the sale of Colorado Gold Mart. He was ordered to pay back $33,000 from his excess salary, $2,200 he’d spent on Apple products and the $133,000 in misused money.
Dan Levy, co-owner of Colorado Gold Mart. (YouTube)
Levy was awarded $108,000 he had loaned to the store, plus his half of the sale proceeds. He was also ordered to return company merchandise that he had taken from the store.
“I think rough justice will have been achieved when the arbitration awards I have entered are satisfied,” Berger said. “That is all that can reasonably be expected.”
Unsurprisingly, the sale of Colorado Gold Mart has not gone smoothly and is the source of more allegations among its co-owners. The Receiver Group decided a sale to either Feller or Levy would garner the highest price, so it held a closed auction between them over the summer. It then wrote to a Denver judge, “Mr. Levy’s bid was materially better than that of Mr. Feller.”
Feller said that’s not true, the auction was rigged and the sale must now be stopped.
Levy’s $564,000 bid was primarily made up of money he is owed by the company, known as a credit bid, and he was allowed to use $105,000 from the company’s bank account as a down payment on his purchase. Both acts broke the auction’s rules, Feller alleged.
Feller said he was willing to pay $425,000 in cash and Levy’s bid included only $45,000 in cash, so Feller should have been declared the winner. Levy maintains he won the auction fairly.
“What is unfair is that for nearly two years now, (Feller and an LLC of his) have acted purely in their own interests with blatant disregard for Colorado Gold Mart, intentionally creating chaos in an effort to run up fees and costs to (Levy) and CGM while they continue to try to game the system and avoid liability for Feller’s misdeeds,” Levy’s attorney wrote Sept. 20.
Denver District Court Judge Martin Egelhoff has not said when he will decide the matter.
Feller is represented by the attorneys Michael Rollin and Lindsey Idelberg with Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher in Denver. They declined to comment on the case this week.
Levy’s lawyer is Cara Thornton at Fortis Law Partners, who also declined to comment.
