Like many providers around the country, UCHealth sent Houk to Zynex Inc., an Englewood-based medical device company that manufactures and sells instruments used for pain management and rehabilitation.

When insurance didn’t cover the electrical nerve stimulation device, Zynex promised Houk that she could make 10 payments of $25 to cover the cost. What the Westminster patient didn’t know was that this would kick off a year of fighting with a company determined to bill Houk and her insurance providers as often as possible.

The company billed her old insurance. It billed her new insurance. And it sent her bills for more than $2,000 for the $250 device, when she was already paying it off in installments.

“The billing was relentless and terrifying,” Houk said in an interview.

Houk was one of numerous Coloradans caught up in what federal investigators say was a years-long scheme by Zynex to oversupply medical devices and overbill patients seeking opioid-free pain relief. A federal grand jury indicted two former top executives in January, accusing them of orchestrating the fraudulent practices that netted Zynex nearly $1 billion. The company last month avoided further prosecution by admitting to participating in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud, securities fraud, mail fraud and other violations.

Former Zynex employees, in interviews with The Denver Post, said they felt uncomfortable following directives that were unethical or outright illegal. The company routinely fell behind on paying vendors, even as leadership touted rapid growth and record revenue. Staff said they were instructed to continue sending devices and supplies to patients, even when they didn’t request them. Executives told workers not to tell Medicare and Medicaid patients that they would be on the hook for the devices if their insurance didn’t cover them.

“It felt like that was poor business practice to essentially lie to your patients and scam them and create a bad reputation for the company,” said Cori Latousek, a former Zynex employee.

More than a dozen patients told The Post they received supplies that they didn’t order and didn’t need. The scheme has prompted a host of lawsuits from insurance companies and shareholders who say they were duped by Zynex.

At the top of the pyramid stood a chief executive officer who marketed the company’s work as the antidote to the opioid epidemic. Thomas Sandgaard started a foundation to help fund alternatives to painkillers and produced a movie on the opioid crisis. He was also known for driving expensive sports cars, playing guitar around the office and promoting himself at every turn, former employees say.

Zynex served as a Colorado startup success story — a one-man operation turned public company with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. This is the story about how it all fell apart.

Sandgaard, a Castle Rock resident, remained in federal custody as of late February, according to the U.S. Marshall’s Office. His attorney, when contacted by The Post, said he was no longer working on the case. Anna Lucsok, Zynex’s former chief operating officer, who was also indicted, is free on bond. Her attorney, Bill Leone, said, “the allegations in this indictment are just that — allegations. We look forward to vindicating our client at trial.”

Zynex, in a statement, said the company, in its deal with the Justice Department, “took responsibility for past business practices implemented by former company executives.”

“Our new management team is committed to the highest standards of integrity and compliance in everything we do, so we can better serve patients who can truly benefit from our prescription medical devices,” the company said. “We have completely broken from the past and look forward to closing this chapter and making an important contribution to the health care needs of Americans living with chronic pain.”

Rapid growth fueled by ‘moral conundrums’

Sandgaard, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Denmark, founded Zynex in 1996 after a career in the semiconductor, telecommunications and medical equipment industries. He positioned the company’s products as a safe alternative to opioids through the development of electrotherapy technology that alleviates chronic pain.

In February 2019, the company went public. Sandgaard called the moment a “milestone achievement” that would help expand the Zynex team.

Rapid growth followed — and industry watchers started taking note.

The company ranked 13th in revenue growth among all medical device companies in the U.S. and Canada on Deloitte’s 2020 Technology Fast 500. Jim Cramer, the popular host of “Mad Money” on CNBC, in 2021 told viewers to buy Zynex stock.

Zynex, in the first quarter of 2023, reported 36% year-over-year revenue growth. Orders increased 61%. The following quarter, revenue jumped 22%.

At the end of 2024, Sandgaard said his company hit $200 million in revenue, and he expected to see 10% to 15% growth in 2025.

“The company is built by our employees,” the founder said in a 2024 interview.

Privately, though, many of those same employees grew concerned over how Zynex was making its money.

Latousek served as a territory manager in Seattle, targeting physical therapy, pain clinics and surgery centers for business. The sales pitch: non-opioid pain management.

She recalled leadership instructing her not to tell patients who received the devices that they automatically get enrolled for supplies, such as batteries and electrodes. Many patients, as a result, she said, received charges that they didn’t authorize.

“That felt really sketchy,” Latousek said. “I would always tell my patients to make sure they opted out.”

Most of the time, Medicare wouldn’t cover the stimulation device or the electrodes. When Zynex dealt with these patients, staff said they told them it cost $250 out of pocket.

But in the spring of 2021, leadership changed the directive. Going forward, the policy was to not tell Medicare patients the cost if their insurance didn’t cover it, former employees said.

“We’re pretty much locking in older vulnerable people on Social Security or fixed incomes who don’t have much money,” said one former Zynex worker, who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity because they feared career consequences for being associated with the company.

This led to constant “moral conundrums,” the former employee said. They recalled phone calls with elderly patients who said they couldn’t afford the device. Yet Zynex still found a way to send them the units, charging them $250.

When this employee brought up concerns from staff that they were taking advantage of people, they said they were let go.

“I never felt good,” the individual said. “Me getting fired was definitely a blessing.”

Former Zynex staffers said this occurrence was common: Workers who expressed concerns about the company’s practices would be fired or reassigned to different roles. As a result, few employees stayed for long, outside of top executives.

Meanwhile, Zynex was often late paying vendors, employees said. The company offered to pay half if it could receive some of the inventory — an arrangement that left workers feeling uncomfortable.

People in the buying department quickly grew alarmed that their supply orders for batteries and electrodes were so steady. Normally, in this business, there should be fluctuating inventory levels based on customer demand, employees said. But at Zynex, the numbers remained constant.

That was because they were shipping batteries and electrodes over and over to the same patients, these workers said they realized. Many people would return the packages to the warehouse with notes telling Zynex to stop sending them supplies.

Unwanted supplies, unexplained bills

More than a dozen patients told The Post that they received supplies from Zynex that they never ordered and didn’t need.

Josh Kahn, 39, underwent a spinal fusion in 2023, and his surgeon recommended an electrical nerve stimulation machine. The Denver resident got a prescription for the Zynex device.

The implement worked well, Kahn said, but every month he received batteries and electrodes that were unnecessary given his usage of the machine. He stuffed a drawer with all the supplies.

In January 2025, Kahn asked Zynex to discontinue the recurring orders. The company acknowledged his request.

But Kahn continued to get charged $45 a month for the device and supplies, according to the bills he provided to The Post.

“This is becoming a nuisance,” he told the company in an email.

Chris Basser, 49, used a Zynex machine for a back injury he sustained in 2021 after getting hit by a drunk driver. Medicaid covered everything, the Colorado Springs resident said, but he still received packs of six or nine batteries every three weeks.

He said he tried calling the company to cancel the orders, but nobody ever responded. He eventually gave up.

“I thought it was maybe a miscommunication,” Basser said. “I didn’t think of fraud.”

It didn’t seem to matter whether patients paid their bills. Zynex continued to demand payment.

For nearly four years, Zynex has been seeking $250 from Michael Raizen, despite the Denver resident negotiating a deal with the company to pay for his device.

“It’s like a bad rash,” Raizen’s wife, Gail DeVore, said. “No matter what you do, you can’t get rid of it.”

Sports cars, electric guitars and giant banners

Sandgaard served as the face of Zynex — and he wasn’t shy about letting everyone know.

The CEO showed up to the Englewood office in a McLaren Model 72S Spider sports car, and liked to walk around the office with his electric guitar, blasting music, ex-employees said. One former staffer recalled carrying around his amp and handing out T-shirts “like a little groupie.”

Sandgaard hung a large banner on the fourth floor, a spoof of a popular George Washington meme in which the Zynex founder is holding a machine gun in one hand, a bald eagle perched on his other arm. He’s standing on a fiery hill with a white Zynex flag behind him. Dollar bills flutter around his feet.

“He came off as a man incredibly full of himself,” the former staffer who felt like a groupie said, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to fears about future career consequences. “It felt very toxic male CEO.”

Complicating matters was the fusion of Sandgaard’s professional and personal lives.

He was in the midst of a divorce when he enlisted the services of a local psychologist, Dr. Raelynn Maloney. In 2014, the two started dating.

Despite the Zynex founder boasting about the company’s success, Maloney learned that Sandgaard and his firm had accrued significant debt and had exhausted lines of credit, she alleged in a 2025 lawsuit against him and the company.

Desperate, Sandgaard asked Maloney to help save Zynex, she said. The psychologist started attending high-level meetings as an unpaid consultant.

Without the ability to obtain financing, Sandgaard regularly asked Maloney for loans for himself and the company, she alleged. Maloney put up more than $1.1 million in personal assets as cash or collateral throughout 2023 so Sandgaard and Zynex could avoid bankruptcy, the complaint alleges.

Sandgaard eventually bought a house for Maloney and her daughters. She quit her private practice to join Zynex full-time, serving as the head of customer service, billing and parts of human resources, Maloney alleged.

In 2020, Sandgaard bought the British soccer team, Charlton Athletic, and asked Maloney to help turn that organization around as well, she said.

Eventually, Sandgaard started to pull away from Maloney, she said in the lawsuit. He began seeking sexual experiences with their mutual friends, colleagues and former Zynex employees, she alleged. He sexually harassed his staff, Maloney said, and even put her in charge of handling several Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sexual harassment complaints made by employees.

“I guess you’re not going to have your fairytale ending,” Maloney said Sandgaard told her.

Maloney did not respond to messages seeking comment. Her lawsuit remains open.

Sandgaard, in court filings, called the complaint a “vengeful recounting of events regarding her romantic breakup.” The lawsuit, his lawyers wrote, “is nothing but a punitive attempt to punish her ex-partner and seek financial relief for the benefits she can no longer reap from their relationship.”

Zynex begins to crumble

The facade eventually started to crumble when insurance providers began to catch on to the scheme.

In December 2024, TRICARE, the health insurer for service members, suspended payments to Zynex “based upon credible allegations of fraud and its audit of Zynex’s billing,” according to Sandgaard and Lucsok’s indictment. That move represented a huge blow to the company’s business, as TRICARE accounted for a quarter of its revenue.

Other payors also stopped reimbursing Zynex.

Allstate, in September 2025, said it had paid out more than $3 million in bodily injury claims to Zynex based on “false and fraudulent records,” the insurer alleged in a federal lawsuit filed in New York.

Zynex, the insurer said, “abused Allstate’s claimants’ insurance coverage by billing for (durable medical equipment) that” Zynex “had no legal right to collect.”

Sandgaard and Lucsok concealed TRICARE’s suspension until March 2025, federal prosecutors said. After the news came out, Zynex’s stock dropped by 51% in one day, dipping to $3.41 per share from $7.

Two days after the disclosure, Sandgaard sold $4.8 million of his stock, even though the company could not afford to buy it back, the indictment states.

Records show Sandgaard and the company as a whole suffered from serious financial woes.

Between 2015 and 2025, the Zynex founder personally racked up more than $321,000 in unpaid taxes to the Colorado Department of Revenue, court records show.

In December, Zynex filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing assets of more than $45 million and debts exceeding $86 million. Among the creditors: U.S. Bank (owed $61.75 million), TRICARE (owed $2.77 million) and the Polsinelli law firm (owed $1.14 million). Maloney is also listed with an “undetermined” claim.

On Jan. 14, a federal grand jury in Rhode Island indicted Sandgaard and Lucsok on charges of conspiracy to commit mail, health care and securities fraud, among other counts.

Federal prosecutors alleged what patients, Zynex employees and insurance providers had been saying for years: The company was billing for and sending people devices and supplies that they didn’t request and didn’t need.

The company collected more than $873 million for its products, including more than $600 million for supplies, “the vast majority of which were the result of fraud,” the government alleged.

Between them, Sandgaard and Lucsok used their sizable earnings to pay for a private jet, a Lamborghini, the McLaren sports car, cosmetic procedures, real estate and the British soccer club, investigators said.

“This case represents a troubling abuse of patients seeking care, as well as the federal health care benefit system,” U.S. Attorney Charles C. Calenda said in a statement announcing the charges.

On Feb. 17, the Justice Department announced Zynex had signed an agreement to avoid prosecution, admitting to the long-running scheme. Zynex also agreed to pay up to $12.5 million in fines and forfeit all unpaid claims.

Sandgaard and Zynex also face numerous lawsuits from insurers, patients and shareholders, who say they were duped by the Colorado company.

For patients who used Zynex devices and employees who worked for the Englewood company, the indictment represented an unsurprising turn of events, while also serving as validation that their suspicions were not wrong after all.

“What they were doing was shoveling as much money into their own coffers as possible,” said Houk, the patient who kept getting billed. “It was utterly relentless. A lot of people got hurt by this.”

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“For old Lumen/CenturyLink/Quantum internet customers like me, things related to billing and future internet service are very confusing,” said Denver retiree Jeff Leib, a former Denver Post reporter.

For starters, Leib found that his automated billing, which had performed like clockwork, was cut off without warning, triggering an $18 late fee. Some customers have complained on Reddit of being double-billed and then hit with a late fee.

Leib said the fee was removed when he called to complain. He was also told that thousands of accounts were facing a similar problem.

“We can confirm that this issue has been resolved. Importantly, any late fees that may have been inadvertently assessed as part of the transition will be credited back to impacted customers,” said Joe Goode, a vice president of external communications at Lumen, in an email. Lumen is based in Monroe, La., but maintains a large presence in metro Denver.

Both companies have acknowledged the billing problem originated on their end and isn’t a reflection of anything customers did wrong, although some customers ignored or missed requests to update their payment information.

“We aim to provide excellent service to all our customers and were disappointed to discover that a system error inadvertently led to billing issues for some customers under the transition service agreement between AT&T and CenturyLink,” said Suzanne Trantow, a regional media relations executive with AT&T.

Customers impacted by billing issues will receive a credit on future bills to cover any late fees incurred, she said, and added the company appreciates the patience of customers during the transition.

Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, said he couldn’t confirm complaints related to the Quantum Fiber acquisition, but consumers who believe their concerns aren’t being properly addressed are encouraged to file a consumer protection complaint at stopfraudcolorado.gov.

AT&T and Lumen signed several two-year agreements that left Quantum Fiber and CenturyLink as the public face for existing customers in areas such as billing, customer support and field operations. That, in theory, should have contributed to the smooth transition promised. But there are several reasons why it didn’t.

Quantum Fiber uses a prepaid billing system, in which customers pay in advance for the following month of service. If they don’t pay, the service is cut off fairly quickly, avoiding the need to issue late fees. AT&T, by contrast, relies on a post-paid system, where customers are billed at the end of a usage period and then hit with a late fee if they don’t pay.

AT&T may have left Quantum Fiber as the public face, but it has linked customers’ account information to the financial reporting systems of NetworkCo, the name of the new AT&T-owned network. As the owner, it wants its rules followed. And in some cases, those rules conflicted with the way Quantum Fiber did things.

Autopay for some accounts, especially those relying on PayPal and certain credit cards, was delinked when the accounts were migrated to the NetworkCo backend system. That resulted in some customers getting hit with a late fee on a bill they didn’t know was overdue.

Reddit posts have complained about slower network speeds, price hikes hitting after discounts were removed, and disconnected service because of compatibility issues since the switch on Feb. 2. But those, unlike the late fees, appear to be isolated incidents.

The transition, even under the best of circumstances, was going to be complicated, given the relatively short eight-month timeline to switch over a million retail fiber customers and 4 million enabled fiber locations in 11 states.

Leib said his conversations with customer service representatives hint at more disruptive changes, but details are lacking. Trade publications suggest Quantum Fiber customers can expect equipment swaps and the potential need to find new internet service providers in the future.

“No one has made clear that this is what the AT&T-Lumen deal means for consumers.  There could be millions of customers affected by this and few may know what is going on as of this moment,” Leib said.

NetworkCo will likely be an “open” access network, meaning that it will operate the broadband infrastructure, but also allow internet service providers to come on board and connect customers. Quantum Fiber is currently a private network, meaning it both provides the infrastructure and the internet services.

Quantum Fiber boxes speak “Lumenese” and can’t communicate with other providers. It was never necessary. NetworkCo equipment will be multilingual.

Why open things up? Quantum Fiber reaches about one in four of the homes it could potentially connect, something it has achieved with aggressive pricing. If ISPs do the heavy lifting of signing up additional customers,  AT&T could achieve higher penetration and more efficient use of its network.

Higher usage could, in turn, allow AT&T and its partners to build out the NetworkCo system faster. An open-access network would also give consumers more choice when it comes to providers, and that tends to lead to lower prices.

But opening up the network will require swapping out equipment. When asked whether Quantum customers would have to switch out their gear or find new providers, Lumen referred questions to AT&T, which in turn said it didn’t have additional information to provide at this time.

“We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for CenturyLink Fiber customers and will continue to communicate with them as more information is available,” said Trantow.

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ROC hit the Nasdaq Capital Market at $6 a share under the ticker, no surprise, ROC, raising $24 million. Demand was strong enough to trigger an overallotment option that allows the underwriter to purchase an additional 600,000 shares over the next 30 days.

Shares closed Tuesday at $5.80 a share, which would value the company, which has 16 million shares, at around $95 million. Palantir, by contrast, is a $308 billion AI giant.

Compared to Palantir, which has a much broader focus on data analytics and system integration, ROC has a narrow niche, image recognition, including faces, fingerprints, irises, tattoos, license plates and weapon identification. The company’s Vision AI  platform claims it allows machines to not only see the world, but also to interpret and understand what they are seeing.

The company, founded in 2015, has 42 employees and dozens of paying customers, including U.S. federal agencies, state and local public safety and law enforcement organizations, global finance companies and retail and commercial security firms.

Facial recognition and fingerprint reading technology have been around awhile, but ROC claims that its systems are less hardware-intensive and faster than those of rivals. Its platforms can use but don’t require expensive graphics processing units or GPUs, making the technology easier to deploy in the field and to operate within tight government budgets.

In one test, its system could read fingerprints 500 times faster than every other vendor, according to the company.

Foreign firms, especially in Japan and Europe, took an early lead in biometrics. But by combining cloud-based systems and AI analysis, U.S. firms are catching up. Another marketing card ROC has with national security and law enforcement customers — it is based and operates entirely within the U.S.

The company’s Denver headquarters is at 1290 Broadway, right next to the Colorado History Center and a short walk from the Denver Art Museum. The company also maintains locations in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Morgantown, W.Va.

ROC said it plans to use the proceeds from its IPO to hire staff for its engineering, sales, deployment and support teams. It also wants to accelerate the training and deployment of its Vision AI algorithms. The remainder of the money will go for working capital and general corporate purposes.

The splits work out to 40% of proceeds spent on hiring, 35% on training and deploying the platform and 25% on capital and general spending.

ROC’s IPO is the second this year by a Colorado company.

York Space Systems, a satellite maker based in Greenwood Village, raised $629 million after selling 18.5 million shares at $34 a piece on Jan. 28. The company had a market value of $3.54 billion on Tuesday. Its shares trade under the ticker YSS on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Dozens gathered to rally against the data center and demand that representatives of CoreSite, the company building it, meet with them to discuss community concerns that grew as the large concrete building continued to rise last year.

Residents worry about potential impacts to their electricity bills, increased blackouts, emissions from the center’s emergency generators and the facility’s water use. Neighborhood groups representing people who live in Globeville, Elyria and Swansea are demanding that CoreSite work with them to protect residents from these possible impacts, and crafted a list of terms they want the company to abide by.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston backs a moratorium on construction of new data centers in city

"If CoreSite wants to be a good neighbor, here's a proposal that's going to allow them to be a good neighbor," Alfonso Espino, lead organizer with the GES Coalition, told the crowd.

Nearly all of the houses in the three neighborhoods are within 1.5 miles of the future data center at East 49th Avenue and Race Street, Espino said. The center sits across the street from a park, a new affordable housing apartment building and a community health clinic.

“This isn’t being built in the middle of nowhere," Espino said in an interview last week. "It’s being built right next to our park. Elyria is pretty small… It’s being built next door to most of our residents.”

The new data center campus, once completed, will offer more than 590,000 square feet of space for computer servers. It will be CoreSite's third and largest data center in Denver, where the company is headquartered.

The three-building facility will use a maximum of 65 megawatts to 75 megawatts of power at a time -- the same amount of power as up to 82,500 homes. The buildings will also require up to 805,000 gallons of water a day to cool its computer systems -- the same as 16,100 Denverites' average daily indoor water use.

Company officials previously said it is extremely rare to use the maximum amounts of power and water. CoreSite data centers typically use less than 50% of their capacity, they previously said.

But full buildout of the campus won't happen until the 2030s, if there is enough customer demand to warrant it, said Megan Ruszkowski, CoreSite's vice president of marketing and sales development.

Construction on the first floor of the first building is expected to finish in June, she said. The company will then add more floors of capacity to the first building -- which will use a maximum of 18 megawatts of power -- as customers sign on.

CoreSite operates colocation data centers, where multiple companies rent space for their servers and computing needs. The new facility will not be used to train artificial intelligence models or facilitate machine learning, Ruszkowski said.

The company sells spaces to a wide variety of industries, including health care, government and banking. Data centers make possible cloud services, online banking and smartphone apps.

“All of us are everyday data center users," she said.

Company leaders on Friday submitted a request to the city for mediation services to help create a "good neighbor" agreement between CoreSite and neighborhood groups, Ruszkowski said.

“Our relationship with the surrounding community is a really big priority to us," she said, noting the company is headquartered in Denver and many of its employees live here.

The company last year donated $25,000 to the Swansea Recreation Center and another $25,000 to the local Boys and Girls Club clubhouse, she said.

The data center is being built on the site of a closed cement factory. CoreSite plans to plant trees and other greenery as well as build a communal green space on the campus.

“We’re really excited about the aesthetic we’ll bring to the community," Ruszkowski said.

GES Coalition and other community organizations recently delivered to CoreSite a proposed agreement. The neighborhoods closest to the data center are already some of the most polluted in Denver, the organizers noted. Already, the residents live with pollution from Interstate 70, a Superfund site, the Suncor Energy oil refinery and other industrial operations.

"That is why 'good neighbor' cannot mean PR, voluntary promises or private conversations," the coalition's proposal states. "In a frontline community like ours, being a good neighbor must be enforceable, measurable, publicly verifiable commitments, with real monitoring, public reporting and real consequences."

The proposal's demands include transparency around power and water usage, the completion of a study of the impacts of the data center on the community, disclosure around the use of generators, and the use of high-quality generators that limit emissions. The groups also want CoreSite to agree that it will not work with companies or governments that are involved in mass surveillance or immigrant deportations.

The coalition is calling for a resident board to hold the company accountable for its promises.

Eleven local organizations and more than 300 individuals signed onto the proposal.

CoreSite will meet with neighborhood groups at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Geotech Environmental Equipment building, 2650 E. 40th Ave., to answer questions about the data center. Officials from Denver Water, Xcel Energy and the city of Denver will also attend.

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But clues sprinkled in a 10-K filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday suggest an abrupt relocation, not unlike an upset partner moving out in the middle of the night.

The data-analytics company reportedly signed a lease in September for 11,400 square feet at the Financial House, located at 205 Detroit St. in Cherry Creek, and had even submitted plans to remodel the space, according to a BusinessDen story based on public records.

That would suggest Palantir saw a future in Colorado and was committed to Denver. But that address hasn’t shown up in any corporate filing made with the SEC or with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. If Palantir had ever intended to make Cherry Creek its headquarters, the plans are off.

In a change of address filing the company made with the secretary of state on Feb. 9, Palantir listed its principal office as being at 518 17th St., Suite 1015, replacing its prior address of 1200 17th St., Floor 15, which it had listed as its home since a filing made on July 23, 2023 — and as recently as on Feb. 2. The first address is in the DC Building, while the second one is in the Tabor Center.

On Wednesday, the company informed the state of another address change — this time to 19505 Biscayne Blvd., Suite 2350, an apparent coworking space in Aventura, Florida.

Both Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston described being caught off guard by the company’s decision to relocate. Palantir executives didn’t offer state and local leaders a chance to talk them into staying. But the company had a reputation for being tight-lipped and keeping to itself.

Even the company’s local headcount remains a mystery. Polis said Tuesday that it might be around 500.

Palantir’s importance wasn’t as much in its employee count as in its market value, which at its peak late last year surpassed that of every other Colorado company combined. It single-handedly put Denver on the map as an artificial intelligence hub, although not without controversy.

The company, which has extensive government contracts, has faced repeated protests over the assistance provided to the Israeli military in Gaza, as well as its recent contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help it in its deportation efforts. A protest at the end of January was larger than usual.

“We take this as proof that coordinated, collaborative action by the people is the most effective route to bringing about a better world. We won’t stop until Palantir is fully out of Denver and is brought to justice. We look forward to supporting the people of South Florida in the continued fight against this destructive corporation and its billionaire owners,” said Michael Hughes of Denver Anti-War Action, in a statement Wednesday.

Moving to South Florida, which has a much larger immigrant community than Denver, likely won’t shield it from protests.

New address is a coworking space

For a big public company with $332.5 billion in market value to abruptly shift its address and put its executives in a coworking space would be the corporate equivalent of sleeping on a best friend’s couch while going through a breakup. If the sudden move were a movie, Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” could provide the soundtrack.

It remains to be seen how much of the company’s workforce will remain in Denver, but the company is reported to be looking for more permanent space in the Miami area.

Aventura is a suburb on the northern edge of Miami-Dade County, closer to Fort Lauderdale than downtown Miami. The suite number is a mailing address for the Industrious coworking space, which is located within the Aventura Mall Office Tower, a building that has about 250,000 square feet of space and is attached to one of the nation’s most active malls.

Based on its typical footprint, Industrious might lease about 10% of that space, and of that amount, only a fraction of that would have likely been available for Palantir to take.

Palantir listed two key risks associated with its presence in Colorado in its 10-K, the first related to climate change and the second to the state’s new AI regulations.

“… our Colorado headquarters has experienced climate-related events and may continue to at an increasing frequency in the future, including drought, water scarcity, heat waves and wildfires, resulting in air quality impacts and power shutoffs. Additionally, while many of our employees have returned to our offices, it could be particularly difficult to mitigate the impact of these events on our employees continuing to work remotely,” the company said.

But if Palantir was looking for climate stability, Florida is hardly the place to go. That state has been hit by roughly 500 tropical and subtropical cyclones in records going back to 1851. And there have been only 18 years in the past 175 years where a hurricane didn’t strike somewhere. The 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons proved especially rough.

A more likely explanation is what the company said about the Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act, or CAIA, which the state legislature passed in 2024 and which is set to take effect this summer.

Palantir specifically called out Colorado’s AI legislation as a risk to its operations in its latest 10-K filing, saying the law mirrors provisions appearing in  European Union regulations. It also mentions concerns about narrower regulatory efforts on AI in California, Utah and Texas.

“When such legislation or commitments, or if similar legislation or commitments in other jurisdictions, are enacted or adopted, compliance with such obligations may be difficult, onerous, and costly, and could adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects,” the company warned investors.

Palantir’s departure ‘a real loss’

Attendees gathered on Wednesday at the Colorado Technology Association’s annual Tech Summit were also at a loss to explain why Palantir left, while acknowledging the company didn’t rub shoulders with the local tech community. They lacked insights and feared their warnings about the impacts of the state’s new AI law were coming true.

“I think it is a real loss,” said Seth Levine, a co-founder and partner in Foundry, a Boulder-based venture capital firm.

Levine was awarded the CTA’s Bob Newman Lifetime Achievement Award, along with David Cohen, founder and CEO of TechStars, a leading tech business incubator that got its start in Boulder.

After Colorado passed its AI bill into law, Levine said he heard from several investors saying they wouldn’t invest in any Colorado companies that Foundry brought to them. It might have been an overreaction, but members of the tech community nationally considered Colorado to be heavy-handed and stifling innovation.

Cohen raised the possibility that Palantir was lured away by the appeal of Miami, which has become a popular destination for tech and financial companies and billionaires looking to escape higher income taxes in other states.

“Miami is doing a good job of marketing itself,” Cohen said, although as someone who knows the tech scene there, he questions whether the appeal is sustainable.

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“We have moved our headquarters to Miami,” the firm said in a post on X without elaboration, seemingly catching local leaders — including Gov. Jared Polis and Mayor Mike Johnston — by surprise.

No details were provided as to how many Denver employees might be relocated to Florida or what functions will remain in Colorado, if any.

Company representatives did not respond to The Denver Post’s request for comment Tuesday.

The company has faced protests during its time in Denver, initially for its support of the Israeli military and more recently for working with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement to use artificial intelligence to identify targets for deportation.

Members of the City Council have chastised Palantir publicly for its work with ICE, and advocacy groups have tried to push the council to divest from any services or contracts with the company.

Palantir faced a large protest Jan. 31 at its new Cherry Creek office and another one this weekend, with protestors chanting “Palantir out of Denver” and “No AI for ICE.”

“When a company profits from contracts connected to raids and detention, working people have a responsibility to stand up for the families they care for, clean for and work beside every day. From Denver to Miami, communities will keep raising their voices until corporations respect civil rights and stop harming our neighbors,” said Stephanie Felix-Sowy, president of SEIU Local 105, which represents service workers in the state.

She added that the company can change its address, but it can’t escape accountability. Colorado service workers have one unified response, she said: “Good riddance.”

Palantir is Colorado’s highest-valued company — and at center of controversy — five years after move to Denver

Polis said Tuesday that he was not notified about Palantir’s move in advance and that he has requested to meet with Palantir’s executives to learn more about the impact on the company’s Colorado employees.

“I don’t know what the announcement means,” Polis said during a news conference to announce a new Colorado Supreme Court justice. “Obviously, what I will be looking to is whether it will affect any jobs in Colorado. It's not clear whether a headquarters move would affect that.”

Likewise, Jon Ewing, a spokesman for Johnston, said the city wasn't made aware that the company might move.

"We did not receive advance notice of Palantir’s decision to leave Denver. Denver remains a national hub for the tech sector, and that won’t change with Palantir’s departure," he said in an email.

The company's website, which still listed its headquarters as being in Denver as of Tuesday evening, also includes North American office locations in Palo Alto, Calif.; New York; Ottawa; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.

Palantir relocated its headquarters from Palo Alto to Denver in 2020, with executive, engineering and operational jobs moving. It initially set up shop in the SugarCube Building before moving to the Tabor Center at 1200 17th St.

In September, the company signed a lease to take 11,400 square feet at the Financial House at 205 Detroit St. in Cherry Creek.

When CEO Alex Karp announced the move to Denver in a 2020 letter, he said the company was leaving Silicon Valley because of cultural and ideological differences. He cited a more pragmatic environment in Denver at the time.

Karp also seemed to be strengthening his ties to the state in December when he paid $120 million to buy the former St. Benedict Monastery in Old Snowmass.

The company has more than 4,000 employees, according to its most recent 10-K filing, and it hasn't provided a precise breakout for its Denver headcount.

Its Cherry Creek lease, which could reach 14,000 square feet, would suggest no more than 150 employees. But the company relies heavily on remote workers, and some of those teams likely reported through the Denver headquarters.

Karp has set a goal of growing the company's revenues tenfold while cutting the headcount to 3,600. He plans to do so by leveraging some of the company's own artificial intelligence tools to boost productivity per employee.

The state legislature has passed the Colorado Artificial Intelligence Act, set to take effect this June, which is designed to regulate "high-risk" AI systems to prevent systemic discrimination. Although not specifically targeted at Palantir, it would have created a stricter compliance regime for the data mining and predictive tools the company develops.

"Even though they only called Colorado home for a brief period of time, we’re sorry our largest company by market cap is choosing another location for their HQ. This move, and others, as well as our continued decline in economic competitiveness rankings, should serve as a wake-up call to policymakers that if we want a strong, robust economy, we need to lower costs, stabilize our politics and make it easier to businesses of all shapes and sizes to be successful here," said J.J. Ament, president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

More practical considerations also might have played a role in the decision to relocate. Florida, as does Texas, lacks a state income tax, and both states have done well in attracting companies and high-net-worth individuals. By relocating the headquarters to Miami, Palantir employees could avoid Colorado's 4.4% state income tax.

Miami has made a concerted push to attract more technology firms, and one of Palantir's co-founders, tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, opened a new Miami office for Thiel Capital, his investment firm, in December.

"This is the tipping point!!!! What a watershed moment for Miami," former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said in a post on X, of the city landing a top 10 AI firm.

Although Colorado is a leader in quantum computing, it has lagged when it comes to artificial intelligence. The arrival of Palantir provided a big boost in that regard, drawing in other companies and talent. It is unclear what Palantir's departure will mean for the state's future in the hottest area of the tech sector, one that is drawing a majority of venture capital investment.

“I’m not aware of the specific factors that led to this decision. What we do know is that Colorado’s technology economy remains exceptionally strong. According to our latest Colorado Tech Industry Report, tech accounts for 10% of statewide employment and 20% of Colorado’s GDP, and the sector has added more than 47,000 net new jobs over the past five years," Brittany Morris Saunders, president and CEO of the Colorado Technology Association, said in an email.

She added that Colorado ranks third nationally for tech industry concentration, which is projected to grow 11.5% over the next five years. Colorado is also fifth nationally in venture capital investment.

Last year, Palantir's market value surpassed the combined value of every other Colorado public company. But Palantir's share price is down 36% below the peak it reached on Nov. 3 of $207.52 a share.

The value of Newmont Mining, a gold miner, has tripled from its 52-week low, giving it a market value of $133.5 billion and making it the state's largest company with Palantir's departure.

Denver Post reporter Shelly Bradbury contributed to this article.

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But those electronic eyes, mounted to poles at intersections throughout this city of nearly 150,000, brought out dozens of people to the Thornton Community Center for a discussion on how the controversial license plate-reading cameras are being used — and whether they should be used at all.

Law enforcement agencies cite the automatic license-plate readers, or ALPRs, as a powerful tool that bolsters their ability to locate and stop suspects who may be on their way to committing their next assault or robbery.

But Meg Moore, a six-year resident of the city who is helping spearhead opposition to Flock cameras, said she worries about how the rapidly spreading surveillance system is impacting residents’ privacy and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Thornton’s Flock camera data can be seen by more than 1,600 other law enforcement agencies across the country.

“We want to make sure this is truly safe and effective,” she said in an interview.

The debate over Atlanta-based Flock Safety’s cameras, which not only can record license plate numbers but can search for the specific characteristics of a vehicle linked to an alleged crime, has been picking up steam in recent years. The discussions have largely played out in metro Denver and Front Range cities in recent months, but this year they reached the state Capitol, where lawmakers are pitching a couple of bills to tighten up rules around surveillance.

The number of police agencies contracting with the company now exceeds 6,000, according to the company. The critical “DeFlock” website uses crowdsourcing to tally the number of Flock cameras out there. At the latest count, the website lists nearly 74,000 Flock cameras operating nationwide.

Metro Denver alone is home to hundreds of the cameras, according to DeFlock’s map.

In Denver, Mayor Mike Johnston has been butting heads with the City Council over the issue. Johnston is so convinced of Flock’s value in combating crime that in October, he extended the contract with the company against the wishes of much of the council. Denver has 111 Flock cameras.

In Longmont, elected leaders took a different approach. Its City Council voted in December to pause all sharing of Flock Safety data with other municipalities, declined an expansion of its contract with the company and began searching for an alternative.

Louisville beat its Boulder County neighbor to the punch by several months, disabling its Flock cameras at the end of June and removing them by the start of October. City spokesman Derek Cosson said privacy concerns from residents largely drove the city’s decision.

Steve Mathias, a Thornton resident for nearly a decade, would like to see Flock’s cameras gone from his city. Short of that, he said, reliable controls on how the streetside data is collected, stored and shared are paramount.

“In our rush to make our community safe, we’re not getting the full picture of the risks we’re facing,” he said. “We’re making ourselves safe in some ways by making ourselves less safe in others.”

The hot-button debate in Thornton played out at last month’s community meeting and continued at a City Council meeting last week, where the city’s Police Department gave a presentation on the Flock system.

Cmdr. Chad Parker laid out several examples of Flock’s cameras being instrumental in apprehending bad actors — in cases ranging from homicide to sex assault to child exploitation to a $5,700 theft at a Nike store.

As recently as Monday, Thornton police announced on X that investigators had tracked down a man suspected of hitting and killing a 14-year-old boy who was riding a small motorized bike over the weekend. The agency said a Flock camera in Thornton gave officers a “strong lead” in identifying the hit-and-run suspect within 24 hours.

At the Feb. 3 council study session, police Chief Jim Baird described Flock’s camera system as “one of the best tools I’ve seen in 32 years of law enforcement.”

But that doesn’t sway those in Thornton who are wary of the camera network.

“I’m not a fan of building toward a surveillance state,” Mathias said.

The hazards of a system like Flock, he said, lie not just in the pervasive data-collection methods the company uses but also in who eventually might get to see and use that data — be it a rogue law enforcement officer or a hacker who manages to break into Flock’s database.

“A person who wants us to do us harm with this system will have as much capability as the police have to do good,” he said.

Crime-fighting tool or prone to misuse?

In November, a Columbine Valley police officer was disciplined after he accused a Denver woman of theft based in large part on evidence from Flock cameras, according to reporting from Fox31. The officer mistakenly claimed the woman had stolen a $25 package in a nearby town and said he’d used Flock cameras to track her car.

“It’s putting too much trust in the hands of people who don’t know what they’re doing,” DeFlock’s Will Freeman said of so many police agencies’ adoption of the technology.

Last summer, 9News reported that the Loveland Police Department had shared access to its Flock camera system with U.S. Border Patrol. That came two months after the station reported that the department gave the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives access to its account, which ATF agents then used to conduct searches for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Parker, the Thornton police commander, said any searches connected to immigration cases or to women from out of state who are seeking an abortion in Colorado — another scenario that’s been raised — “won’t ever touch our system.” State laws restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities and with other states’ abortion-related investigations.

“Any situation I feel uncomfortable about or that might be in conflict with our policies or with Colorado law, I will revoke their access — no problem,” he said.

Thornton deputy city attorney Adam Stephens said motorists’ Fourth Amendment rights are not being violated by the city’s Flock camera network. During last week’s meeting, he cited several recent court cases that, in essence, determined that there is no right to privacy while driving down a public roadway.

In an interview, Stephens said Thornton was “in compliance with the law.”

Flock spokesman Paris Lewbel wrote in an email that the company was “proud to partner with the Thornton Police Department to provide technology used to investigate and solve crimes and to help locate missing persons.”

Lewbel provided links to two news stories about minor children who were abducted and then found with the help of Flock’s cameras in Thornton and elsewhere.

At the council’s study session last week, Parker provided more examples of Flock’s role in fighting crime and finding missing people in Thornton. They included police nabbing a suspect who had hit and killed a pedestrian, locating a burglar who was suspected of robbing several dispensaries, and tracking down an 89-year-old man with dementia who had gotten into his car and gotten lost.

“It allows us to find vehicles in a manner we weren’t able to previously,” Parker said of the camera network.

Thornton installed its first 10 Flock cameras in 2022 and then added five more — plus a mobile unit — two years later. The initial deployment was in response to a spike in auto thefts in the city, which peaked at 1,205 in 2022 (amid an overall surge in Colorado). Thornton recorded 536 auto thefts last year.

The city says Flock cameras have been involved in 200 cases that resulted in an arrest or a warrant application in Thornton over the last three years.

Thornton police have access to nearly 2,200 other agencies’ Flock systems across the United States, while nearly 1,650 law enforcement agencies can access Thornton’s Flock data, according to data provided by the city.

For Anaya Robinson, the public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, the networked nature of Flock cameras across wide geographies is a big part of the problem. By linking one police agency’s Flock technology with that of thousands of other police departments, it “creates a surveillance environment that could violate the Fourth Amendment.”

The sweeping nature of Flock’s surveillance is also worrisome, Robinson said.

“You’re not just collecting the data of vehicles that ping (a police department’s) hot list (of suspicious vehicles), you’re collecting the data of every vehicle that is caught on a Flock camera,” he said.

And because the technology is relatively inexpensive — Thornton pays $48,500 to Flock annually for its system — it’s an affordable crime-fighting tool for most communities. But that doesn’t mean it should be deployed, DeFlock’s Freeman said.

Fight remains a largely local one

State lawmakers are crafting bills this session to limit the reach of surveillance technologies like Flock’s.

Senate Bill 70 would put limits on access to databases and the sharing of information. It would prohibit a government from accessing a database that reveals an individual’s or a vehicle’s historical location information, and it would prohibit sharing that information with third parties or with government agencies outside the controlling entity’s jurisdiction. Certain exceptions would apply.

Senate Bill 71 would direct a “law enforcement agency to use surveillance technology only for lawful purposes directly related to public safety or for an active investigation.” It also would forbid the use of facial-recognition technology without a warrant and would place limits on the amount of time data can be retained.

Both bills await their first committee hearings.

Thornton says it doesn’t use facial recognition technology. Its Flock data is retained for 30 days.

Regardless of what passes at the state Capitol, the real fight over license plate readers of any type will likely continue to happen at the local level. Thornton’s council plans further discussions on Flock next month.

For Moore, the resident who is leading the charge against the cameras, potential surveillance of the immigrant community is what troubles her the most.

“We want to make sure we’re operating this so that it’s safe for all of our residents,” she said. “Getting rid of the cameras altogether is a tough sell. But there needs to be a conversation about guardrails.”

Mayor Pro Tem Roberta Ayala, a Thornton native, said she has heard a wide array of opinions from her constituents about the advantages and potential downsides of the technology.

“Could it be misused? Yes. Do we want to stop that? Yes,” she said.

But as a victim of crime herself, Ayala also knows the immense damage and disruption that crime causes victims and their families, be it a stolen vehicle or something much worse. And as a teacher, Ayala is concerned about achieving justice for the families of children who are harmed or abused.

“If it can save even five kids,” she said, “I want the cameras.”

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That’s a big selling point for Dylan Williams, the wildfire mitigation and resilience coordinator for Douglas County. He sees biochar — a carbon-rich, charcoal-like material produced with intense heat and little oxygen — as the “next level of wildfire mitigation.”

The $8 million biochar plant in Sedalia, which will begin construction soon, is being billed as the first county-owned facility of its type in the country.

The process of making biochar releases little in the way of harmful emissions, experts say, making it a desirable method to process organic matter that land managers see as increasingly important to remove from the forest as the climate warms and becomes drier.

The material that’s produced brings another upside: Biochar can be added to farm fields, golf courses or home gardens, where it improves aeration and water retention in soil. It also stores carbon that might otherwise get released as planet-warming carbon dioxide through burning — or as methane, another greenhouse gas, if it were left to break down in a landfill.

“By converting woody debris and forest byproducts into biochar, we’re reducing wildfire risk, supporting responsible forest management, and creating a valuable resource that can improve soil health and support long-term environmental resilience,” Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon said last week.

The county has been moving quickly to get the plant up and running, said Nash Leef, a partner in Carbon Dynamics. Leef’s company works with local governments to stand up biochar operations and has been collaborating with Douglas County for about a year to prepare the plant’s debut, expected this fall.

“The technology to produce biochar at scale is nascent,” he said. “There are so many communities watching Douglas County to see if it will work for them.”

One set of interested eyes comes from Aurora. The county and Colorado’s third-largest city hammered out an agreement in December that pledges $100,000 from Aurora toward the development of the biochar facility.

Aurora Water spokeswoman Shonnie Cline said most of the city’s drinking water originates from forested areas west of the city, “where forest thinning and fuels-reduction projects are essential to reducing wildfire risk.”

But properly disposing of that potential wildfire fuel can be as difficult as removing it in the first place.

“From an operational standpoint, one of the greatest challenges associated with forest health work is managing the woody material generated through thinning projects,” Cline said. “Today, that material is often trucked to landfills, chipped onsite or burned in piles, which can be costly and generate higher emissions.”

Daniel Roberts, the assistant director of Douglas County’s public works department, said the plant’s future home off of U.S. 85 is just downhill from the Pike and San Isabel national forests, where wildfire danger lurks large.

Where trucks today haul tons of downed logs and leafy understory to distant landfills and other receiving sites in the state, Douglas County’s new facility could reduce those miles — and costs — substantially, he said.

But the new plant won’t just be for the big guys.

At an open house last week in Castle Rock, several dozen people turned out to learn about Douglas County’s biochar ambitions. A.J. Opp, the lead plant healthcare technician with Knothead Tree and Lawn, was in the audience.

His company, he said, would much rather turn the organic waste it generates into a useful product rather than just chucking it.

“I like it mostly because of the reusability of the product that I’m trying to get rid of,” Opp said, holding a sample bag at the open house. “This is instantly usable carbon.”

Biochar market is growing

Biochar as a material is not novel. It has been produced by humans for more than 2,000 years, originating in the Amazon basin of South America.

But churning out the material at an industrial scale is what’s newer, said R. Scott Summers, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder.

While Douglas County’s facility will be a municipally run biochar operation, there are private biochar plants in the state. Most notable are Biochar Now in Berthoud and Colorado Biochar Resources in Pueblo. Both companies got their start in 2011.

Summers has been experimenting with biochar production for more than two decades, using different methods, equipment and feedstock — the term for the input material that is to be turned into biochar.

He likes the equipment that Douglas County will be using — a $1.6 million Biomass Energy Technologies Pyrolysis Rotary Drum that decomposes organic waste at temperatures as high as 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The machine weighs in at five tons and is 36 feet in length.

“At that scale, that’s the standard that is used,” Summers said.

Leef, with Carbon Dynamics, says organic waste is typically chipped down to 2-inch diameter wood chips and fed into the drum. After being exposed to a high temperature, the material is cooled and quenched with water. The limited oxygen involved in the process means little in the way of emissions is released, namely carbon dioxide.

“The vast majority of those carbon compounds are forced to bond with other carbon compounds (rather than oxygen),” Leef said.

According to a Colorado State University fact sheet on biochar, the pyrolysis process “chemically and physically alters the composition of the biomass to produce a highly porous, stable form of organic matter.”

Biochar has multiple applications and uses, including yielding byproducts like bio-oil, syngas, wood vinegar, and thermal or electric power during its transformation. CSU also notes that biochar reduces greenhouse gas emissions by storing carbon and helps with water and nutrient cycling in agriculture.

Leef likens today’s biochar industry to where composting was 50 years ago — a quirky concept that will take time to gain widespread acceptance. But according to a December report from business analytics firm SkyQuest Technology, the sector is poised to take off.

The firm estimated the 2024 value of the biochar industry at nearly $230 million, jumping to $258 million last year. By 2033, the sector is projected to reach a value of $652 million.

Sales of biochar, Leef said, could provide “an economic light at the end of the tunnel” for municipal leaders trying to make the numbers work.

Douglas County doesn’t see future biochar sales as a profit center — other than to set the project on a self-sustainable course. It expects the facility to reach the break-even point in just under a decade.

“The goal is to have more acreage treated and take the profit (from biochar sales) and put that into the mitigation program,” said Williams, the county’s wildfire mitigation expert.

Daniels, from Douglas County’s public works department, figures the plant can generate $2 million to $2.2 million annually from sales of biochar, while keeping annual operating costs at around $1.5 million a year.

Summers, the CU professor, had some questions about those numbers.

“If they’re dependent on that economic model, they really need to make sure the market is there,” he said.

That’s the job of Jared Tanaka, an environmental inspections supervisor for Douglas County. While homeowners will likely be able to get biochar from the county for free, Tanaka is working on developing a wholesale side to the operation.

That might include marketing biochar as a soil blender for horticultural and agricultural businesses, as well as for golf courses.

‘This is better’ than a landfill

As for ensuring there’s adequate feedstock for the biochar plant into the future, Williams said that’s not a concern.

The genesis of the idea of placing a facility in Douglas County, he said, came a couple of years ago during discussions with U.S. Forest Service personnel who were looking for a better way to dispose of forest waste.

Last month, the Forest Service launched the Rampart Fuel Break project, which will involve crews removing trees and other woody waste from the Pike National Forest along Rampart Range Road to create fuel breaks and reduce the chance of devastating wildfires.

Leef, the consultant, called the biomass that will be culled by the Forest Service over the next few years “ideal feedstock.” Free of barbed wire and nails, it provides the steady quality that works best in creating biochar.

“These units work best when you have a feedstock that is consistent and dry,” he said.

The facility itself will be being structured to have as little impact as possible on residents in Sedalia, Roberts said, including the construction of noise walls.

“Delivery of biomass and operation of the grinder and chipper will only be done during the day to minimize noise impacts,” he said. “Design of lighting will be done to minimize impacts while still providing needed illumination for security and safety.”

Forest Service trucks will arrive by appointment only so as not to overwhelm the neighborhood.

“We don’t want 50 trucks a day coming into this facility,” Roberts said.

Opp, with Knothead Tree and Lawn, said the new biochar plant will make his work feel more worthwhile and sustainable.

“I don’t want to see the wood chips we produce go straight to the landfill and do absolutely nothing for the environment,” he said. “This is better.”

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The organization launched its Power Ahead Colorado program Monday as part of a multi-pronged effort to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by the heating and cooling of homes. The council, or DRCOG, will use the money from a $199.7 million grant awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The initiative will include $40 million for incentives for heat pumps; no-cost home upgrades for lower-income households; advisers to help homeowners decide if heat pumps are right for them; and money for getting the word out about Power Ahead.

Other funds will go to train workers to install heat pumps and provide resources to cities and counties so they can implement statewide building codes aimed at using electricity rather than fossil fuels for buildings. Critics of phasing out natural gas argue that much of the electricity on the grid comes from natural gas, but proponents say renewable energy is making up a larger share.

Renewable energy made up 43% of Colorado’s in-state electricity net generation in 2024 and natural gas produced about 30%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

State officials have said buildings are one of the top five sources of greenhouse gas pollution and that Colorado can’t meet its goals for addressing climate change without addressing emissions associated with buildings.

Robert Spotts, Power Ahead Colorado program manager, said efforts are underway to reduce carbon emissions from power generation and transportation. But work on cutting building-related emissions is lagging, he said.

An inventory of area greenhouse-gas emissions conducted for DRCOG showed that roughly 52% of the emissions in 2022 came from buildings — 30% commercial, 22% residential — while 34% came from transportation and 14% from other sources.

“This is an incredibly challenging sector and this was the right opportunity to make some headway and tackle this sector,” Spotts said.

Another impetus for the program was the realization by metro-area communities that the task is bigger than individual cities and counties, he added.

“Really what you’re seeing here has been years in the making in terms of local govts recognizing that to transform the market, we need to tackle this from every angle,” Spotts said.

Tackling emissions, building workforce

DRCOG, which represents nine counties and 50 cities and towns, was one of 25 out of 300 applicants to receive Climate Pollution Reduction Grants through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. There were some nerve-racking moments when the incoming Trump administration temporarily froze funds for clean water, pollution reduction and electrification programs.

Power Ahead wasn’t able to access the federal funds right after the 2025 presidential inauguration. “Thankfully, that was short-lived,” said Christine Selk, Power Ahead’s manager of communications and engagement.

At that point, Power Ahead had signed contracts for the program. Selk said the funding, which runs through 2029, will go to spur economic development and job creation as well as provide rebates for heat pumps.

“Adams County strongly supports the goals of Power Ahead because buildings are one of the largest sources of climate pollution in our region, and improving energy performance is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce emissions while also lowering utility bills,” said Amanda Perkins, climate policy and implementation specialist in the county’s Community and Economic Development Department.

Perkins said in an email that training and workforce development around heat pump installation will create local, well-paying jobs and help ensure Adams County has the skilled labor needed to meet the growing demand.

Beside local governments, DRCOG is working with the Colorado Energy Office, Xcel Energy-Colorado, Energy Outreach Colorado and others. Spotts said the heat pump rebates offered by the state, Xcel and metro-area communities can be stacked with the incentives offered by Power Ahead.

A part of the work, Spotts and Selk said, will be to educate people about heat pumps. Despite its name, a heat pump both warms and cools a building. Rather than burn fuel to produce heat, it uses electricity to move heat from one place to another.

An air-source heat pump transfers heat from outdoors to inside a house when it’s cold and transfers heat inside to the outdoors to cool a house in hot weather.

Many times a heat-pump system will include a back-up gas furnace to operate ideally only at temperatures below 30 degrees Fahrenheit, said Neil Kolwey, building electrification specialist at Boulder-based Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. At that “change-over” temperature, he said the heat pump would reduce the use of gas for heating by about 60% for a home in the Denver/Boulder area.

Technological advances have made heat pumps a practical solution in areas with subzero weather, according to RMI, a Colorado-based nonprofit that advocates for clean energy. Heat pumps are prevalent in Nordic countries.

Because a heat pump doesn’t burn fuel to generate heat, it eliminates carbon monoxide and the risk of gas leaks in a home, Power Ahead said. A goal is to focus on people in areas disproportionately affected by pollution.

The upfront costs of replacing traditional furnaces and air conditioning with heat pumps have been seen as a barrier. If a home doesn’t have air conditioning, adding the plumbing needed for a heat pump can boost the cost.

But Stephen Hong, owner of Electrify Colorado in Denver, said with the rebates available, replacing a gas-burning furnace with a heat pump should be “a no-brainer.”

“Essentially, the way that the financial tailwinds have pointed for customers is in the direction of efficiency and in the direction of electricity-using appliances as opposed to natural gas systems,” Hong said.

The overwhelming majority of heating and cooling systems Hong installs are heat pumps. He welcomes Power Ahead’s plan to educate the public about heat pumps and train more people to install them.

The DRCOG program is partnering with five workforce centers in the region in hopes of training 4,800-plus new workers so there are more people to do the installations and electrical work.  The program will include a hub providing resources for contractors. Consumers will be able to access information about contractors and quotes.

Other initiatives will provide training for younger workers and inmates serving time for low-level crimes and who are finishing their sentences. Spotts said the program will continue its support once people are out of prison to help place them in jobs.

About $6 million in grants is earmarked for innovative approaches to overcoming market barriers. An example is a California business that installs temporary hot water heaters in emergencies to give homeowners time to consider switching to a heat pump water heater.

Although DRCOG is a metro Denver organization, Spotts said the organization wants to be a resource across the state. The program can’t provide rebates outside the Denver area, but Power Ahead can direct people in other areas to the right sources for information and help.

Updated Jan. 27 at 1:30 p.m. to add details about heat pumps.

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Arash Ghaemi has wondered for 18 years what happened to his mother after she disappeared from a Wheat Ridge motel.

So Ghaemi, an artificial intelligence developer and entrepreneur, turned his profession into his passion.

“What if I can get the case files and run it through AI?” he said of the police investigation into his mother’s disappearance. “Maybe it will show me something and make the connections. If I could build it to solve my mom’s case, I could likely build it to solve other cases.”

Ghaemi launched CrimeOwl, an AI program that searches cold-case files to generate new leads for investigators, last year.

So far, the AI platform is in the hands of a few private investigators who are using it to chase leads on behalf of families searching for missing loved ones. Ghaemi hopes one day the program will have its big break in solving a case, and maybe — just maybe — it will help figure out what happened to his mother, Shaida Ghaemi, when she disappeared in 2007.

Ghaemi, who goes by “Ash,” on Tuesday met with investigators, information-technology staff and commanders at the Wheat Ridge Police Department to show off his AI tool and to ask for an update on his mother’s case.

For now, Wheat Ridge police say CrimeOwl is too unproven to use in the department’s investigations, including Shaida Ghaemi’s disappearance.

And they are tight-lipped about her case.

“We were really happy to meet with Ash. It’s part of our philosophy of relationship policing,” said Alex Rose, a Wheat Ridge police spokesman. “It was a twofold meeting to explain what we could about the case and to give some professional insight on the AI tool so it can become more widespread and of use to agencies across the country.”

‘Still trying to make sense of it’

When Arash Ghaemi was growing up, his mother was almost too good a mother, he said, describing her as “almost overbearing” in taking care of him and his older sister.

But when Arash was 17, his parents divorced, and everything changed.

Shaida Ghaemi became distant from her children. She left home a lot.

“It was weird,” he said. “She went from always needing to be in contact with me and my sister to she could take it or leave it.”

Shaida Ghaemi did not have a permanent home and did not have a job, her son, now 40, said. She traveled between Colorado and Maryland, where her parents lived.

In 2007 — five years after the divorce — she moved into the American Motel in Wheat Ridge with her boyfriend, Jude Peters.

“I am still trying to make sense of it,” he said of the changes in his mother’s behavior.

Arash Ghaemi was a 22-year-old server at a Red Robin restaurant in Highlands Ranch when his grandfather called from Maryland on a September night and told him they were unable to reach his mother. He asked his grandson to call the police.

Shaida Ghaemi, then 44, was last seen on Sept. 9, 2007, by Peters. Drops of her blood were found in their motel room. At the time, Peters told 9News it was menstrual blood and that Ghaemi often left for months at a time.

Wheat Ridge police still consider her disappearance a missing-person case, and there is no “clear indication of foul play,” Rose said. “Jude is not considered a person of interest in this investigation at this time,” Rose said of Peters.

“They still don’t know where she’s at and they don’t have any trace of her,” Ghaemi said.

‘True value’ of AI

Artificial intelligence is gaining ground as a law enforcement tool. Multiple police departments across Colorado are using the technology, most commonly for converting body-worn camera footage into written crime reports. It’s also being used to track license plates and to scan people’s faces.

The Wheat Ridge Police Department uses Axon’s Draft One to help write police reports, based on their body-worn camera footage.

“Our officers know they’re accountable for every single word,” Rose said. “It gives them a who, what, when and where and can save them time, but it’s not a substitution for good police work.”

Ghaemi launched CrimeOwl about six months ago. He is also developing AI programs for the dental industry and a new sports statistics program that could eventually be used by the NBA.

He programmed CrimeOwl to sort through all of the documents in a case file and build a map of the people connected to the missing person, such as partners, family, close friends and neighbors. The AI also creates a timeline of events leading to the disappearance or death and then maps all of the geographic locations connected to the crime, he said.

The platform has a chat function so investigators can ask the AI to sift through files to find answers to their questions.

While CrimeOwl was designed to help with missing-persons cases, Ghaemi said he hopes it can be used to solve other crimes.

No police departments have bought the product so far.

Ghaemi, who lives in Miami, said he tested CrimeOwl on a solved cold case in Florida and, after uploading the police case file into his program, the AI created a list of credible suspects within 30 minutes, he said. Police confirmed it had identified the actual perpetrator, he said.

“It took me 30 minutes to do what it could have taken them weeks or months to do,” Ghaemi said. “That’s the true value here.”

Not ready for police use

CrimeOwl, however, is not ready for active law enforcement investigations, Rose said.

The CrimeOwl platform would need to be secure so no one could tamper with the evidence once it is uploaded, Rose said. It would need to receive various certifications before any law enforcement agency used it, he said.

It would also need to be vetted by lawyers so any leads it generated would hold up at trial, he said.

“There are a lot of details and a lot of hypotheticals that would need to be heavily vetted for AI technology in a real-world police setting,” Rose said.

Still, Wheat Ridge police are intrigued by Ghaemi’s AI tool and were more than willing to offer advice and expertise, he said.

“We’re always going to applaud somebody who is trying to use technology to find ways to help,” Rose said.

Ghaemi said the Wheat Ridge investigators declined to hand over his mother’s case file because of the security concerns. He had wanted to upload those documents into CrimeOwl to see if it could generate new leads.

Police officials also told him that if they used CrimeOwl to identify a suspect, that person’s defense attorney would likely argue bias since the AI platform was built by the missing woman’s son, Ghaemi said.

“My stance is it has been 18 years. You guys have passed it on to other investigators. It’s not solving the case,” he said. “I’m willing to take that risk.”

Ghaemi hopes to overcome the legal barriers and law enforcement skepticism before his new company folds under financial pressure. He said CrimeOwl has a revenue stream, but it loses money every month.

“I built this thing with a mission in mind at first,” he said. “I didn’t really know how it would work or if it would work or if I would go broke. Even if it’s not me and CrimeOwl went broke tomorrow and we had to shutter the doors, I just want investigators to use AI to solve these cold cases.”

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