Steve Howe in a sponsored appearance on the Benzinga podcast in April 2022. (YouTube)
A Denver businessman faces 27 federal charges for allegedly robbing the government of $1.2 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans at a time when he had no employees.
Steve Howe, 72, was arrested by FBI agents in Windsor on July 2 and released on a $10,000 bond. He faces 20 counts of bank fraud and seven counts of money laundering, which could send him to prison for the remainder of his life. He has pleaded not guilty.
Howe’s entrepreneurial efforts in recent years have centered around hydrotherapy. His Omnia Wellness, which had an office address in Denver Place downtown, planned to open spas in the U.S. and Europe where customers would spend $5 or $10 for a 15-minute soak.
“Our biggest planned growth outside of fitness partners and medical partners is putting our modalities into a corporate store. We call it The BodyStop,” Howe told a business podcast that he paid to be on in 2022. “Our first store opens in about two weeks on Long Island.
“The public is very interested in what we’re doing. We’ve already pre-sold a couple hundred memberships,” he claimed then. “We’ll have a grand opening. We have a number of VIPs that are anxious to come in and see what The BodyStop is and experience it.”
But the next year, Omnia stopped filing paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its stock price fell below a penny, where it has remained since.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors say Omnia and four other companies Howe controlled had zero employees in the two years before he appeared on the business podcast, yet sought and received $1,243,800 from 10 Paycheck Protection loans, all of which were forgiven.
“Howe submitted false information and fabricated documents to lenders to make it appear that these companies had paid wages and were eligible,” last month’s indictment states.
The U.S. attorney’s office alleges that Howe spent his ill-gotten gains on the lease and purchase of a home, IKEA furniture, monetary transfers to China, travel, gym memberships and legal bills. About $50,000 in checks allegedly mention 1023 Anaconda Drive in the memo line.
The Anaconda Drive address in Castle Pines is a 9,500-square-foot home that was sold to a family trust for $2.6 million in November 2020, four months after Howe’s $50,000 down payment. County records show that Howe previously lived at 9346 E. Harvard Ave., a $1.9 million home in the Cherry Creek Country Club, before it was foreclosed on last year.
Howe did not respond to requests for comment sent to Omnia. He is represented by Kristin Whitaker with the Office of the Federal Public Defender, which does not comment.
Howe will soon need a new attorney. At his first appearance July 2, U.S. Magistrate Judge Reid Neureiter ruled that the defendant cannot be represented by a public defender going forward. Court records do not explain the judge’s reasoning for that decision.
