Law Firm Loan Deals Anger Businesses Searching for Missing Money

The deal was too good to pass up for seven companies in search of financing—get a 10-year loan at 6% interest for a 25% payment up front.

The companies, including a Florida kosher food operator and a Utah hospitality consultant, collectively sent more than $10 million for their down payments in 2023. But the loans never appeared, and the businesses are in court trying to get the deposits back.

The alleged theft “devastated” the companies, Kenneth Chase, counsel for five of them, said in court filing. The scam drove New York digital marketing and content creation company Abbson out of business, it alleged in another filing.

What galls the companies is where they sent those deposits—to Messner Reeves, a reputable Denver law firm with more than 100 lawyers and nearly 30 years of operation. The firm’s role in the loan offering “alleviated any concerns about the potential loss” of deposits, the companies allege. So instead of going after the lender, they’re now targeting the law firm for allegedly orchestrating the deals.

Why Messner Reeves got entangled in the alleged fraudulent loan scheme is not explained in court filings. Partner Torben Welch, the corporate lawyer who allegedly arranged the transactions, has been at the firm for nearly two decades and leads its Utah office.

The firm acknowledges holding money for the lender—INBE Capital LLC of Sheridan, Wyoming—and taking in more than $10 million in a trust account for the client. Messner Reeves says it wasn’t involved in any fraud and distributed the funds as directed by the company before INBE dissolved late last year. But the firm is refusing to say where it sent the money and fighting an effort to force it to disclose the information.

The businesses claiming they were ripped off say they have no idea what happened to their deposits, but are hoping to soon get answers in court. They’re suing Messner in a pair of lawsuits in Utah’s federal court and in another case in Manhattan. Judges in all three cases are set to rule on motions that could force the firm to shed light on its role in the scam or see the suits dismissed.

Messner and Welch have so far defended themselves by rejecting the claims as “baseless” and arguing that the firm can’t be held liable for any fraud that may have been committed by a client. Welch said in a court filing that he did not represent INBE, but instead worked for its joint venture partner Clearwater Premiere Perpetual Master LLC. The firm also clapped back at lawyers for five businesses suing in Utah, asking the court to sanction them for going after 80 Messner attorneys on racketeering claims without any evidence that they worked for INBE or were aware of the alleged loan scam.

“Messner Reeves and its partners adamantly deny there is a factual or a legal basis for the claims against them,” John Palmeri, an attorney representing the firm, said via email. “Messner Reeves and its partners are aggressively defending the lawsuits. They have filed motions to dismiss and have requested the court impose monetary and other sanctions for the baseless claims against them.”

The Deal

The businesses suing Messner in one of the Utah cases say Welch initiated the scheme by asking brokers to attract borrowers in need of capital for “business equity lines of credit.” The firm on its website touts Welch’s experience handling complex litigation and working for a large mortgage bank.

Welch was counting on INBE Capital to provide the capital, according to the complaint. Neither the complaint nor the companies’ later filings specify how Welch first connected with INBE. Welch did not respond to requests for comment.

Jan Jacobowitz, a legal ethics expert, said it would be unusual for a law firm to hold money for a loan transaction between an investment company and businesses. “In this situation, even if there were no issues, it would be unlikely that the law firm would be holding that money at all,” she said.

Kosher Eats, a food distribution and catering company headquartered in Davie, Florida, is one of the businesses that responded to the brokers’ outreach. The company was looking for funds to expand its business and signed up for the deal.

Kosher said in September filings in the Utah case involving the other companies that it wired $2 million to Messner Reeves in April 2023 as a deposit for an $8 million line of credit. The firm was designated to act as a trustee and hold the money in escrow, the company claims.

Kosher said Messner and INBE led the company on for months. By January 2024, nine months after Kosher wired the deposit, Welch said the money was no longer in a law firm account. Instead, Kosher and the other plaintiffs claim they were told the funds were with Titan Financial LLC. Todd Owen, who is listed as Titan’s organizer in its incorporation papers, did not respond to a request for comment.

Kosher sued Messner in July 2024. The law firm spent a year and a half lying about taking the money and trying to cover up the theft, all “while refusing to return money which does not belong to them,” Kosher’s president, Noah Lasko, claimed in a January court filing.

Abbson, the digital marketing company, said it transferred $3.5 million to Messner Reeves for a $14 million loan. With no funds to show for the move, Abbson said in a court filing it’s unable to keep operating while it faces lawsuits from creditors. Kosher Eats, Abbson, and the other plaintiffs declined to comment through their attorney Chase.

The two finance companies allegedly tied to Welch and Messner Reeves—INBE and Titan—were administratively dissolved in November 2024 and January 2025, respectively, according to the Wyoming Secretary of State. INBE and Titan are not named as defendants in the Utah suit by Kosher, Abbson, and three other companies. INBE has not responded to a separate Utah lawsuit against it and Messner by another business that claims it was targeted in the loan scam. Titan Financial is listed as a defendant in the third suit, in a New York federal court, but has not responded to the complaint.

Following the Money

A lawyer for INBE said in a May 28, 2024 filing in a California state court that $700,000 in deposit money paid by one of the businesses—Emerald Consulting Partners—was still with Messner Reeves. The firm disbursed all of the $10.1 million it had collected from the businesses as of July 25, 2024, Jim Smith, Messner Reeves’ president, said in an affidavit last month.

Welch was the only Messner Reeves attorney with “any knowledge or involvement in any of the deposits any borrowers with INBE made or any disbursements from the INBE funds,” Smith said. “None of the INBE funds were disbursed to any individual partner or employee of Messner Reeves, including Welch.”

The firm disbursed the funds at the direction of INBE and Clearwater. Titan Financial and Clearwater are owned by the same person, Todd Owen, according to the Wyoming Secretary of State and court documents.

Welch and Messner Reeves also are being sued in Nevada over an alleged loan scam related to a failed deal to build a basketball arena in Las Vegas. The scheme allegedly was fronted by ex-pro basketball player Jackie Robinson.

INBE, Titan, and Clearwater are among the “fraudulent banks” that Welch set up to fund phony loans, according to the Nevada suit, filed in December by a California investor who says he was bilked. The loans allegedly were marketed as “business equity lines of credit,” just as in the INBE deals with the other small businesses.

Messner and Welch earlier this month asked the Nevada court to dismiss racketeering and other claims, arguing that the investor’s factual allegations don’t support the claims and that they were filed too late.

Owen is not named in the suit, but he and Welch participated in an October 2022 news conference in which he was identified as the project’s funder, according to an LA Times report.

INBE’s CEO Craig Boddington is a Florida-based businessman who has been a “successful business coach and mentor for many Fortune 500 companies,” according to the company’s website. The website also boasted more than $35 billion in its investment pipeline and over $700 million in facilitating transfers per month. It listed major corporations as investment partners, including Pfizer Inc., Visa Inc., and Barclays PLC.

‘To the Next Level’

Messner Reeves opened its doors in Denver in 1995 and grew into a mid-sized firm with more than 100 attorneys in ten offices across the US, including in California, New York, and Arizona.

“We develop the legal strategies that can help propel the minor operation to the next level or the next ten levels—whether that means doubling in size or becoming a worldwide, publicly traded enterprise,” the firm boasts on its website.

Welch has been a Messner Reeves partner since 2008. He specializes in complex business transactions, according to the firm’s website. His practice areas include real estate, finance, international business, and lending and banking.

On Welch’s personal website, which was recently taken down, he wrote that he spent his legal career representing individuals, businesses, professional athletes, and sports franchises in global transactional and litigation matters.

He said he was also the “VP and Associate General Counsel of one of the nation’s largest privately held mortgage banks,” which Messner’s website lists as Primary Residential Mortgage Inc.

The firm on its website highlights Welch’s role in negotiating and closing a 10-figure financing deal for an entertainment and hospitality resort. Messner Reeves also credits Welch for “acquiring $100 million of bonds in the oil and gas industry.”

Such accolades that once gave the businesses comfort, however, now leave a sting. “I never imagined,” Kosher’s Lasko said in sworn testimony, “that attorneys at a major law firm would steal.”