Cedar Rapids man convicted in investment scheme violated no-contact order, judge rules

CEDAR RAPIDS - A judge recently found a Cedar Rapids man in contempt for violating a protection order that prohibited him from having contact with investors he defrauded last year.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Nancy Baumgartner said in her order the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Alan Lucas, 44, "willfully and deliberately" violated the no-contact issued by the court after his conviction. She sentenced him to 35 days in jail, which will run consecutively to his 25-year prison sentence.

Baumgartner said in the order she was running the terms consecutively to give Lucas incentive to obey the no-contact order.

Lucas was convicted last year of ongoing criminal conduct and first-degree theft.

Assistant Iowa Attorney General Rob Sand presented evidence during a hearing earlier this month of letters Lucas asked his father to mail to the victim investors. Lucas sent the letters to 'defendants,” which included 10 victim investors that he is suing in a civil case filed in Delaware.

Lucas claimed during this sentencing last March that the investors had no right to the money they put into Covenant Investment Fund. Lucas claimed he is the general partner, and the victim investors were limited partners.

Sand argued in the hearing the letters were threats that informed the victims not to accept any funds from restitution Lucas was ordered to pay. Lucas was ordered to pay $130,820 in victim restitution.

According to trial testimony, Lucas purchased Convenant Investment Fund from an associate, Noah Aulwes, in May 2010 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; a BMW; and other items, according to trial testimony.

Aulwes, 57, of Cedar Rapids, was convicted of securities fraud and other charges in December 2012. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $363,000 in victim restitution.

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.