Doug Glaser in a 2023 television segment.
There are facets of Doug Glaser’s 50-something life — the Porsche in the garage, the $2,500 bottle in the wine bucket — that would make sense to his former 20-something self: cocky and conspicuous, making millions on Wall Street, spending millions in Denver.
Of course, other details are not the same. In place of his Cherry Creek home, now worth $2.3 million, is a more modest house in Thornton. And he sells solar panels, not stocks.
Glaser, 54, was an investment wunderkind in the 1990s, then a long-term resident and jailhouse lawyer at the Denver Jail in the 2000s, then a state prison inmate in the 2010s. Now he is a small business owner with big plans for a real estate development in Grand County.
But fresh allegations of theft and fraud tucked inside lawsuits and reported to police in recent months leave open the possibility that his new work is not entirely above board.
Has Doug Glaser really gone straight?
A long, strange case
One Sunday afternoon in 2005, a Mercedes moving south down Broadway was clipped by a merging car, which sped off. The Mercedes owner stayed. It would change his life.
The driver’s name was Doug Glausen, according to his passport, but that name didn’t appear in a police records search. Warrants for his home and office soon turned up other IDs.
A mugshot of Doug Glaser. (Denver Post file photo)
Glausen, it turned out, was Glaser, an Estes Park High grad who made his first million dollars trading stocks at 23, lived fast, drove drunk, and drew investigations into his apparent pump-and-dump scheme, then changed identities, moved to New Jersey, made millions more, and returned to Colorado. By 2005, Glaser was worth $54 million, he would later say.
But detectives in Denver had not forgotten the name Doug Glaser.
A 43-count indictment — theft, forgery, securities fraud, criminal impersonation — followed. Then came an odd series of delays. One mistrial was declared when his defense attorney said that he, the lawyer, had a mental illness affecting his work. Another attorney for Glaser committed suicide after an eight-hour standoff with police in Cherry Creek.
Glaser, who maintained he was innocent, spent 1,419 days awaiting trial and went through seven lawyers. Finally, he was convicted of several fraud and impersonation counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison. That was in 2012, seven years after he was indicted.
Panels and parcels
“What makes you different from everybody else out there?” a host on KWGN’s “Great Day Colorado” asked in June 2023. “From other businesses. You’re local, right?”
“It’s a personal relationship with our clients and we’re so quick,” said Glaser, whose Glaser Solar had paid for the sponsored TV segment. “We really are responsive, we try to get things done as soon as possible, and we are doing it much quicker than our competitors.”
Glaser, who pronounces his name Gloss-er, started Glaser Solar in 2020. It operates out of Fort Lupton but does work across the state, according to court records and Glaser.
Joan Burrell, an 80-year-old woman in Littleton, said that she met Glaser in fall 2020, soon after his July 8 release from prison and founding of Glaser Solar. His $49,950 estimate for a solar installation was unaffordable, so Burrell declined, according to court documents.
Joan Burrell’s home in Littleton. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
Burrell claims that Glaser then filed and signed loan paperwork on her behalf, pocketed the first $25,000 in loan proceeds, and never installed solar panels, leaving her in debt. In November, she sued Glaser and Glaser Solar for theft and fraud, among other allegations.
Glaser, who represents himself in legal disputes, drawing on knowledge he acquired as a jailhouse lawyer, is countersuing Burrell and her lawyer for $350,000. He said Burrell asked for the loan, changed her mind, and refused to pay Glaser for his work, then tried filing criminal charges against him. Glaser said her false allegations harm his business.
In Aspen, Glaser is accused of tricking Camilla Sparlin into believing he knew how to install solar panels on her 3,000-square-foot home that she leases out for $30,000 per month, then damaging the roof so severely that the house cannot be occupied. Glaser said he did good work and is countersuing for $500,000, accusing Sparlin of lying to harm his business.
Glaser canceled an interview with BusinessDen to discuss his company and his past.
Meanwhile, his plans for a mountain town development seem to be struggling. In June 2023, Glaser Properties LLC paid $1.9 million for 80 lots near Granby in Grand County. “Time to develop and market! Exciting project!!!” Glaser wrote on his Facebook page.
But the seller sued Glaser in November, saying it has not been repaid the $1.9 million it loaned to him. On Jan. 5, a judge in Hot Sulphur Springs ordered the lots sold off.
Doug Glaser in a 2023 television segment.
There are facets of Doug Glaser’s 50-something life — the Porsche in the garage, the $2,500 bottle in the wine bucket — that would make sense to his former 20-something self: cocky and conspicuous, making millions on Wall Street, spending millions in Denver.
Of course, other details are not the same. In place of his Cherry Creek home, now worth $2.3 million, is a more modest house in Thornton. And he sells solar panels, not stocks.
Glaser, 54, was an investment wunderkind in the 1990s, then a long-term resident and jailhouse lawyer at the Denver Jail in the 2000s, then a state prison inmate in the 2010s. Now he is a small business owner with big plans for a real estate development in Grand County.
But fresh allegations of theft and fraud tucked inside lawsuits and reported to police in recent months leave open the possibility that his new work is not entirely above board.
Has Doug Glaser really gone straight?
A long, strange case
One Sunday afternoon in 2005, a Mercedes moving south down Broadway was clipped by a merging car, which sped off. The Mercedes owner stayed. It would change his life.
The driver’s name was Doug Glausen, according to his passport, but that name didn’t appear in a police records search. Warrants for his home and office soon turned up other IDs.
A mugshot of Doug Glaser. (Denver Post file photo)
Glausen, it turned out, was Glaser, an Estes Park High grad who made his first million dollars trading stocks at 23, lived fast, drove drunk, and drew investigations into his apparent pump-and-dump scheme, then changed identities, moved to New Jersey, made millions more, and returned to Colorado. By 2005, Glaser was worth $54 million, he would later say.
But detectives in Denver had not forgotten the name Doug Glaser.
A 43-count indictment — theft, forgery, securities fraud, criminal impersonation — followed. Then came an odd series of delays. One mistrial was declared when his defense attorney said that he, the lawyer, had a mental illness affecting his work. Another attorney for Glaser committed suicide after an eight-hour standoff with police in Cherry Creek.
Glaser, who maintained he was innocent, spent 1,419 days awaiting trial and went through seven lawyers. Finally, he was convicted of several fraud and impersonation counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison. That was in 2012, seven years after he was indicted.
Panels and parcels
“What makes you different from everybody else out there?” a host on KWGN’s “Great Day Colorado” asked in June 2023. “From other businesses. You’re local, right?”
“It’s a personal relationship with our clients and we’re so quick,” said Glaser, whose Glaser Solar had paid for the sponsored TV segment. “We really are responsive, we try to get things done as soon as possible, and we are doing it much quicker than our competitors.”
Glaser, who pronounces his name Gloss-er, started Glaser Solar in 2020. It operates out of Fort Lupton but does work across the state, according to court records and Glaser.
Joan Burrell, an 80-year-old woman in Littleton, said that she met Glaser in fall 2020, soon after his July 8 release from prison and founding of Glaser Solar. His $49,950 estimate for a solar installation was unaffordable, so Burrell declined, according to court documents.
Joan Burrell’s home in Littleton. (Justin Wingerter/BusinessDen)
Burrell claims that Glaser then filed and signed loan paperwork on her behalf, pocketed the first $25,000 in loan proceeds, and never installed solar panels, leaving her in debt. In November, she sued Glaser and Glaser Solar for theft and fraud, among other allegations.
Glaser, who represents himself in legal disputes, drawing on knowledge he acquired as a jailhouse lawyer, is countersuing Burrell and her lawyer for $350,000. He said Burrell asked for the loan, changed her mind, and refused to pay Glaser for his work, then tried filing criminal charges against him. Glaser said her false allegations harm his business.
In Aspen, Glaser is accused of tricking Camilla Sparlin into believing he knew how to install solar panels on her 3,000-square-foot home that she leases out for $30,000 per month, then damaging the roof so severely that the house cannot be occupied. Glaser said he did good work and is countersuing for $500,000, accusing Sparlin of lying to harm his business.
Glaser canceled an interview with BusinessDen to discuss his company and his past.
Meanwhile, his plans for a mountain town development seem to be struggling. In June 2023, Glaser Properties LLC paid $1.9 million for 80 lots near Granby in Grand County. “Time to develop and market! Exciting project!!!” Glaser wrote on his Facebook page.
But the seller sued Glaser in November, saying it has not been repaid the $1.9 million it loaned to him. On Jan. 5, a judge in Hot Sulphur Springs ordered the lots sold off.
