A Colorado prepare passenger helped result in the rescue of a lacking, injured hiker after she noticed her via a prepare window.
The passenger was using Colorado’s Durango and Silverton Slim Gauge Railroad on October 10 when she noticed the hiker via the window and alerted the prepare conductor, in response to a Fb submit from the San Juan County Workplace of Emergency Administration.
The hiker, a girl from New Mexico, went lacking after she started a hike on the Colorado Path, says the workplace. She left the path and headed alongside the Animas riverbank, the place she fell, breaking her leg. She spent two nights injured within the wilderness, in response to the workplace.
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After the second night time, she managed to discover a high-visibility spot on the riverbank – and flagged down the passing prepare.
Two prepare workers who have been additionally skilled medics crossed the river and stayed with the hiker till the Silverton Medical Rescue crew arrived, in response to the workplace.
The rescue operation was advanced: the search and rescue crew have been flown in on a helicopter and used ropes to move the injured hiker throughout the river. Then, a helicopter flew the affected person to a close-by hospital. The search and rescue crew have been transported out of the riverbank space on a small prepare, in response to the workplace.
“One other individual in a second of want was efficiently introduced house resulting from teamwork and collaboration,” wrote the workplace.
The Colorado Division of Securities is pursuing legal action against a man whom it claims deceived investors and used the ownership of federally supported low-income housing projects to line his own pockets.
Securities Commissioner Tung Chan announced its civil court filings against Michael Dale Graham, 68, on Nov. 12.
Chan’s office filed civil fraud charges against Graham, and also asked for a temporary restraining order and freezing of Graham’s assets and his companies’. A Denver district court judge immediately granted both. Since then, two court dates to review the those orders have canceled; a third is scheduled for mid-January.
Graham operates Sebastian Partners LLC, Sebastiane Partners LLC, and Gravitas Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund I LLC (“GQOZF”), all of which were controlled by Graham during his “elaborate real estate investment scheme,” as described by the securities office in a case document.
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The filing states Graham collected more than $1.1 million from eight investors to purchase three adjacent homes in Aurora. The Denver-based Gravitas fund and its investors purportedly qualified for the federal Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) program with the homes. Qualified Opportunity Zones were created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by Congress in 2017. The zones encouraged growth in low-income communities by offering tax benefits to investors, namely reductions in capital gains taxes on developed properties.
A file photo of a suburban housing development in the Denver metro area.
Paul Souders/WorldFoto & Getty Images
Graham formed Gravitas in early 2019 and purchased the three homes located in the 21000 block of E. 60th Avenue two years later. He quickly sold one of them with notifying investors, according to the case document. While managing the other two, Graham and Gravitas transferred the fund’s assets and never operated within QOZ guidelines to the benefit of its investors or the community, according to the state.
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Gravitas also transferred the titles for the two properties to Graham privately. As their owner, Graham obtained undocumented loans from friends totaling almost $600,000. The two loans used the two properties as security.
Gravitas investors were never informed of the two loans, according to the case document. Also, Gravitas never sent its investors year-end tax reports, the securities office alleges.
Graham used the proceeds of the loans for personal use. No specific details were provided about those uses.
“Effectively, Graham used Gravitas as his personal piggy bank,” as stated in the case document, “claiming both funds and properties as his own. Graham never told investors about the risks associated with transferring title to himself. On September 1, 2023, he sent a letter to investors, stating that the properties ‘we own’ are doing well and generating growth due to record-breaking home appreciation. But Gravitas no longer owned the properties.
“Gravitas no longer had assets at all.”
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Furthermore, the securities office said Graham failed to notify investors of recent court orders against him in Colorado and California. In total, Graham was ordered to pay more than $1 million in damages related to previous real estate projects.
Graham’s most recent residence is in Reno, Nev., according to an online search of public records. He evidently has previously lived in Santa Monica, Calif., and Greenwood Village.
Logan Smith
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Logan Smith is an assignment desk editor at CBS Colorado in Denver with more than 30 years of journalism experience in digital, television and print media.
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