A Castle Rock man will not go to prison for embezzling millions of dollars from his best friend’s company, despite the desires of his godsons and a judge for a harsher sentence.
“He walked,” said Greg Smith, a godson and victim. “He skated out of this pretty unscathed.”
Harold Gorden, 81, will instead spend 10 years on probation and be required to repay $271,000 that he stole, though there is reason to doubt that money will ever reach his victims.
“Given that Mr. Gorden isn’t really accepting any responsibility for what he did to all of you, if there was more of a sentence I could impose, I would,” Douglas County District Court Judge Ryan Stuart said at Gorden’s sentencing Monday afternoon, “because I don’t think Mr. Gorden understands the seriousness of his actions and the harm he has caused you all.”
Gorden was the best friend of Neal Smith II, president of the Shirley Co., a real estate holding company that was founded in Denver in 1927. He was also the godfather to Smith’s four sons — Neal Smith III, Greg, Brad and Justin — who called him Uncle Butch or Butchy.
After Neal Smith II’s single-engine Cessna crashed down in Wyoming in 2002, killing him, Gorden was named trustee of the Smith family company and family estate. In addition to the $2 million in wages he was paid as trustee between 2003 and 2020, another $2.3 million in Shirley Co. money is missing and presumed stolen, a judge determined last summer.
“The defendant’s conduct was so brazen, his remorse is nonexistent and the court strongly suspects that he stole more than three times the amount (that) plaintiffs were able to trace,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Brown said of Gorden in June 2023.
Gorden was charged in Douglas County with two counts of felony theft and one count of securities fraud. In December, he pleaded guilty to one theft charge. In exchange, prosecutors dropped the other charges and asked that Stuart not sentence him to prison.
“If Mr. Gorden isn’t admitting to any of his conduct, why is the District Attorney’s Office agreeing to probation?” the judge asked Deputy District Attorney Austin Fletcher on Monday, after Fletcher claimed that “Mr. Gorden takes no accountability for the theft in this case.”
While Fletcher was explaining that a probationary sentence would make it easier for Gorden to pay restitution, Stuart cut in to ask, “Is he going to pay anything?” The judge noted that Gorden has reported a modest monthly income of only a few thousand dollars.
“Clearly he’s either blown all of the money that he stole from these people or he has hidden it very well, so that we can’t find it,” Stuart told the prosecutor. “He’s going to continue to claim indigence and he’s not likely to pay a dime of this restitution.”
Despite receiving millions of dollars from the Smiths, both legally and illegally, Gorden was represented by a public defender, Lauren Sposa. She told Stuart that her client pleaded guilty, in part, to avoid putting the Smith family through an “emotionally fraught” trial.
“At the end of the day, he is pleading guilty and taking responsibility,” Sposa claimed.
“Mr. Gorden,” Stuart said, “is there anything you’d like to tell me before I sentence you?”
“No,” the defendant told him, “I’ll be quiet and let you do your thing, sir — your honor.”
Despite having reservations, the judge approved the plea agreement and sentenced Gorden to a decade of probation, plus 60 days of house arrest. The 81-year-old was also ordered to take classes on ethics and victim empathy, and to find full-time employment.
“Mr. Gorden’s going to have to work 40 hours a week until he pays restitution,” he said.
Greg and Justin Smith, who testified at Monday’s hearing, don’t expect that will happen.
“I feel like $271,000 was an absolute slap in the face,” Greg Smith said of the restitution amount Tuesday. He later added, “And I don’t think we’re going to see a penny.” The brothers are still awaiting the $2.3 million that Brown, the bankruptcy judge, ordered Gorden to pay.
Both brothers want to see Gorden spend time in prison — “That would make him sit and think about the things that he has done,” Justin Smith said — and they compare his case to that of Steve Bachar, who was sent to a prison in Rifle last year for stealing less than Gorden did, all because a judge rejected a plea agreement. Bachar died in prison March 15.
“If I had the opportunity to steal $10 million and get a 10-year probation and a $271,000 fine, I’d have done that all day long, every day of my life,” Greg Smith said, referring to the amount that he believes Gorden embezzled. “That’s a pretty good rate of return.”
This story was reported by our partner BusinessDen.
