Convicted former investment broker accused of violating protection order

CEDAR RAPIDS - A Cedar Rapids man serving 25 years for bilking investors out of thousands earlier this year was back in court Friday claiming he didn't violate a no contact order.

Assistant Iowa Attorney General Rob Sand said Alan Lucas, 44, convicted of ongoing criminal conduct and first-degree theft last year, violated a protection order which bans him from contacting the victims he cheated.

Sand presented evidence of letters Lucas asked his father to mail to the victims. Sand played the recorded phone call Lucas placed to his father from the Linn County Jail, asking him to send the letters to 'defendants,” which includes 10 victim investors, that he is suing in a civil case filed in Delaware.

During his sentencing last March, Lucas claimed the investors had no right to the money they put into Covenant Investment Fund.

Lucas testified Friday that he is the general partner and the victim investors were limited partners. He said the letters sent to the investors weren't sent by him, they were sent by Covenant. He claimed all the documents went through attorneys and his name wasn't on it.

Sand asked Lucas if he denied sending the letters which he described to his father and asked him to send.

Lucas said he wasn't sure. He said he had more than one conversation with his father.

Sand argued the letters were 'nothing more than a threat,” which informed the victims not to accept any funds from restitution Lucas was ordered to pay. He wants to keep that money himself, Sand said.

Sixth Judicial District Nancy Baumgartner ordered Lucas to pay $130,820 in victim restitution last March.

'The letters aren't signed by an attorney and there is no return address anywhere on the letters,” Sand said. 'If this was through legal counsel, they would be signed.”

Richard Pazdernik, Lucas' attorney, said Lucas' understanding was that legal counsel could communicate to the victims. Lucas believed he didn't violate the no contact order, he said.

Baumgartner asked for a copy of the recording and said she would take the matter under advisement and make a ruling later.

According to trial testimony, Lucas purchased Convenant Investment Fund from an associate, Noah Aulwes, in May 2010 and Aulwes transferred nearly $190,000 in the fund to Lucas, but the 40 investors were not informed of the transaction.

Lucas then took the investors' funds and paid off his personal credit card, rent for his company Asherlee Management, property taxes, purchased a BMW and other items, according to trial testimony. Lucas claimed at trial that he was the general partner of the fund and had a right to the assets of the company, but according to terms of the fund the contract was between the investors and general partner Noah Aulwes.

Aulwes, 57, of Cedar Rapids, was convicted of securities fraud and other charges in December 2012, and is serving a 10-year prison sentence. He also was ordered to pay $363,000 in victim restitution.

Last year, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a civil judgment awarded last year for more than a $1 million against Lucas and eight businesses he controlled.

Lucas also faces a failure to appear charge for absconding from his trial last October. He fled to Wisconsin before the last day of his trial. Lucas' mother told a judge he purchased a plane ticket to India and had planned to leave the country. Authorities arrested him in Wisconsin before he had a chance to leave.