One of the 10 commandments tells us “thou shall not steal.” But apparently one conservative religious activist misunderstood.
A former field director and organizer for The Christian Coalition — who also once worked as a Denver-area radio talk show host — is facing charges in two Colorado counties that he stole more than $15,000 and cost an investor more than $1 million through a phony mortgage scam.
Martin Andrew Nalitz Jr., 46, is in custody said, Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant said in a phone interview.
Grant said Nalitz is being held on two felony counts for allegedly stealing between $35,000 and $85,000 involving “loan papers in fraudulent mortgage company,” Grant said.
Grant said a 50-page court affidavit outlines a complex scheme involving fraudulent loans with money being misappropriated directly to Nalitz by using bogus paperwork.
Nalitz has been under investigation “for many months,” Grant said. He is being held on a $1 million bond and is scheduled to go to trial in early June.
According to a written statement from Golden, Colo., police, Nalitz was arrested the evening of April 29 at a Holiday Inn Express motel in his hometown of Littleton, Colo. A warrant for Nalitz’s arrest had been issued a day earlier, police said.
He was arrested “without incident,” police reported.
In the statement, Golden Police Dept. Detective Sgt. Jon Watson described Nalitz’s scheme as “mortgage lending fraud.”
“Nalitz, through his company Merit Funding Group L.L.C. is suspected of fabricating up to 15 mortgage transactions,” police said in the statement. The money came from Easy Street Properties and its owner, Sam Kimbriel.
Kimbriel received interest payments on his investments but “became suspicious when the interest checks started to bounce,” police said.
Investigators say Kimbriel may have lost as much as $1 million through the scam.
Nalitz is also facing similar charges in Jefferson County, Colo., Pam Russell, spokeswoman for Jefferson and Gilpin County prosecutors, said in a phone interview. But specifics on those charges were not available.
Grant said that in the mid-1990’s, Nalitz worked as a field director and organizer for The Christian Coalition, the evangelical group active in grassroots politics for mainly Republican candidates. It is not clear his current affiliation with the group, which did not return calls to comment.
Attempts to reach Nalitz’s attorney were also unsuccessfully.
Nalitz also worked as talk show host for KNUS-AM 710 in Aurora, Colo., a Denver suburb. A woman who answered the phone at the station said it had been at least five years since Nalitz worked there. She did not know how long he worked at the station but did say his show was not religious oriented.
In an odd coincidence Nalitz is the second former radio talk show host facing criminal charges of mortgage fraud.
MortgageDaily.com reported last week that Barber Clark, a former radio psychic in Lexington, has been indicted on five felony counts of stealing more than $700,000 from an escrow account at her defunct mortgage company.
