The Daily Sun-Up Bilked investors in Argo Mill saga get a bit of closure
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Feb 16, 2026 Jason Blevins, a Colorado Sun outdoors reporter covering mountain communities, gives investigative updates on the five-year Argo gondola saga. He outlines the vanished $4.5M escrow and wider $11M fraud. He also discusses recoveries, a guilty plea, and how the revived gondola and Doppelmayr involvement could reshape Idaho Springs.
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Escrow Money Vanished In 2020
- Mary Jane Lovely raised $4.5 million from local investors in 2020 for the Argo gondola project and watched the escrow money vanish.
- The title company representatives stalling with excuses led to an FBI probe and civil litigation that revealed the funds were misappropriated.
Escalate Early When Escrow Funds Stall
- Pursue legal action and involve federal authorities when escrow monies go missing or title companies become unresponsive.
- Civil judgments and indictments can take years but may produce guilty pleas and partial recoveries.
Scheme Extended Beyond One Project
- Christina McGee and Sandra Bacon collected roughly $11 million from multiple entities under the pretense of escrow for loans that never existed.
- They used incoming funds to pay earlier investors, operating a classic Ponzi-like scheme until discovery.