The 10-story building at 44 N. Cook St. in Cherry Creek. (BusinessDen file)
An information technology company in Cherry Creek is at risk of being shut down by a judge because its two co-owners are reportedly deadlocked and bickering over whether or not one is engaged in a fraud scheme named for an alternative rock band of the 1990s.
LucidPoint, at 44 Cook St., handles cloud consulting and computer hardware needs for business clients. It was formed in 2017 by Mike Fontaine of Denver and Kevin Seba of Littleton. Fontaine owns 51 percent of LucidPoint’s stock and Seba holds 49 percent.
Fontaine and Seba first worked together at NetApp, the multinational hardware firm.
“Kevin and I quit our comfortable jobs at NetApp and LucidPoint began!” Fontaine once recalled of the Denver firm’s humble beginnings. “It now seems like an easy decision, but we had no outside investments, and we didn’t pay ourselves for the first year. All those late nights and weekends are starting to pay off as we continue to grow like gangbusters.”
Last month, Seba filed a lawsuit against LucidPoint and Fontaine that made a striking claim: The company, which is said to be successful enough to net its owners several hundred thousand dollars each year in dividends, must not be allowed to keep operating.
That is because Fontaine has been running an “oppressive, if not fraudulent” racket “to enrich himself using company assets while at the same time damaging the value of the company and the value of Mr. Seba’s shares,” according to that latter co-owner’s lawsuit.
Seba said that Fontaine calls his scheme Greater Than Ezra, a reference to the rock band Better Than Ezra. One fan theory for the band’s name is that its members wanted to be named Ezra but, upon learning of another band named Ezra, called it Better Than Ezra.
Kevin Seba (LucidPoint)
Fontaine denies the existence of the Greater Than Ezra scheme. Seba claims that Fontaine and an accountant plan to steadily increase Fontaine’s salary to $500,000 per year and then move LucidPoint’s assets to a new company — similar, but greater than, LucidPoint — leaving Seba with half of a worthless firm. Fontaine’s salary recently doubled to $275,000.
Fontaine, who acknowledges hiking his salary — he said $275,000 is still “below market for a company of LucidPoint’s size, revenues and profitability” — is countersuing Seba for extreme and outrageous conduct, among other claims, and also seeking a judge’s injunction.
Fontaine said that Seba is highly intelligent but lacks people skills, to the point that several employees under him vowed to quit if Seba didn’t. While Seba claims he was pushed out of the company, Fontaine said Seba agreed to leave, pointing to an August 2023 email.
“Mike, let me go. I’m tired of the fight. I would have left already but I’m trying desperately to not leave you in the lurch,” Seba wrote, according to a screenshot of their exchange.
One way or another, Seba left LucidPoint in fall 2023. But he did not turn over access to the company’s computer systems. That has caused problems, according to Fontaine.
The company president alleges that Seba illegally accessed LucidPoint’s payroll system to decrease Fontaine’s pay by 44 percent, and has been reading employees’ emails and eyeing their calendars. Which is how he knew that Fontaine would be meeting with seven Colorado CEOs — all prospective clients of LucidPoint — on Dec. 12. It was during that meeting that Seba had his lawsuit served on LucidPoint and Fontaine, according to the latter.
“Michael was having a meeting with several gentlemen and the receptionist knocked on the door and asked for him to come out to accept the court documents,” Steven Glenn, the process server Seba hired to deliver the lawsuit, later wrote in a court report.
“Michael got up from the table, came out of the conference room and when he got halfway to the receptionist desk, he said, ‘Oh I’m not taking that,’ and he turned around and headed back towards the conference room,” according to Glenn. “I announced in a loud voice that I was serving him … and that I was leaving a copy on the front counter.”
Mike Fontaine. (LucidPoint)
Fontaine is asking Judge Robert Lung to remove Seba, who owns 50 percent of voting shares, from LucidPoint due to his “fraudulent or dishonest conduct or gross abuse of authority.” He also wants an injunction barring Seba from accessing LucidPoint’s computer systems.
Seba, on the other hand, wants Lung to appoint a receiver who will wind down LucidPoint’s operations and sell off that company. A full-day hearing is scheduled for March 5.
Fontaine and attorneys for Seba did not answer requests for an interview. Seba is represented by Thomas Walsh of the Walsh Law Firm in Greenwood Village. Lawyers for Fontaine are Peter Gergely, Ryan Fletcher and Alana LeFebvre at Merchant & Gould in Denver.
Meanwhile, Better Than Ezra is on tour following the release of its ninth studio album, “Super Magick,” last year. The band does not have any upcoming shows in Colorado.
The 10-story building at 44 N. Cook St. in Cherry Creek. (BusinessDen file)
An information technology company in Cherry Creek is at risk of being shut down by a judge because its two co-owners are reportedly deadlocked and bickering over whether or not one is engaged in a fraud scheme named for an alternative rock band of the 1990s.
LucidPoint, at 44 Cook St., handles cloud consulting and computer hardware needs for business clients. It was formed in 2017 by Mike Fontaine of Denver and Kevin Seba of Littleton. Fontaine owns 51 percent of LucidPoint’s stock and Seba holds 49 percent.
Fontaine and Seba first worked together at NetApp, the multinational hardware firm.
“Kevin and I quit our comfortable jobs at NetApp and LucidPoint began!” Fontaine once recalled of the Denver firm’s humble beginnings. “It now seems like an easy decision, but we had no outside investments, and we didn’t pay ourselves for the first year. All those late nights and weekends are starting to pay off as we continue to grow like gangbusters.”
Last month, Seba filed a lawsuit against LucidPoint and Fontaine that made a striking claim: The company, which is said to be successful enough to net its owners several hundred thousand dollars each year in dividends, must not be allowed to keep operating.
That is because Fontaine has been running an “oppressive, if not fraudulent” racket “to enrich himself using company assets while at the same time damaging the value of the company and the value of Mr. Seba’s shares,” according to that latter co-owner’s lawsuit.
Seba said that Fontaine calls his scheme Greater Than Ezra, a reference to the rock band Better Than Ezra. One fan theory for the band’s name is that its members wanted to be named Ezra but, upon learning of another band named Ezra, called it Better Than Ezra.
Kevin Seba (LucidPoint)
Fontaine denies the existence of the Greater Than Ezra scheme. Seba claims that Fontaine and an accountant plan to steadily increase Fontaine’s salary to $500,000 per year and then move LucidPoint’s assets to a new company — similar, but greater than, LucidPoint — leaving Seba with half of a worthless firm. Fontaine’s salary recently doubled to $275,000.
Fontaine, who acknowledges hiking his salary — he said $275,000 is still “below market for a company of LucidPoint’s size, revenues and profitability” — is countersuing Seba for extreme and outrageous conduct, among other claims, and also seeking a judge’s injunction.
Fontaine said that Seba is highly intelligent but lacks people skills, to the point that several employees under him vowed to quit if Seba didn’t. While Seba claims he was pushed out of the company, Fontaine said Seba agreed to leave, pointing to an August 2023 email.
“Mike, let me go. I’m tired of the fight. I would have left already but I’m trying desperately to not leave you in the lurch,” Seba wrote, according to a screenshot of their exchange.
One way or another, Seba left LucidPoint in fall 2023. But he did not turn over access to the company’s computer systems. That has caused problems, according to Fontaine.
The company president alleges that Seba illegally accessed LucidPoint’s payroll system to decrease Fontaine’s pay by 44 percent, and has been reading employees’ emails and eyeing their calendars. Which is how he knew that Fontaine would be meeting with seven Colorado CEOs — all prospective clients of LucidPoint — on Dec. 12. It was during that meeting that Seba had his lawsuit served on LucidPoint and Fontaine, according to the latter.
“Michael was having a meeting with several gentlemen and the receptionist knocked on the door and asked for him to come out to accept the court documents,” Steven Glenn, the process server Seba hired to deliver the lawsuit, later wrote in a court report.
“Michael got up from the table, came out of the conference room and when he got halfway to the receptionist desk, he said, ‘Oh I’m not taking that,’ and he turned around and headed back towards the conference room,” according to Glenn. “I announced in a loud voice that I was serving him … and that I was leaving a copy on the front counter.”
Mike Fontaine. (LucidPoint)
Fontaine is asking Judge Robert Lung to remove Seba, who owns 50 percent of voting shares, from LucidPoint due to his “fraudulent or dishonest conduct or gross abuse of authority.” He also wants an injunction barring Seba from accessing LucidPoint’s computer systems.
Seba, on the other hand, wants Lung to appoint a receiver who will wind down LucidPoint’s operations and sell off that company. A full-day hearing is scheduled for March 5.
Fontaine and attorneys for Seba did not answer requests for an interview. Seba is represented by Thomas Walsh of the Walsh Law Firm in Greenwood Village. Lawyers for Fontaine are Peter Gergely, Ryan Fletcher and Alana LeFebvre at Merchant & Gould in Denver.
Meanwhile, Better Than Ezra is on tour following the release of its ninth studio album, “Super Magick,” last year. The band does not have any upcoming shows in Colorado.
