The old saying “Good things come in small packages” isn’t always good as Matt Sowash, founder of the Colorado-based nonprofit Holy Ground Tiny Houses recently found out.
The businessman accused of swindling people out of their life savings by promising to build them tiny homes and not delivering is now the target of a police investigation.
Matt Sowash, the founder of the Colorado-based nonprofit Holy Ground Tiny Houses, has also filed for bankruptcy, court records revealed Oct. 19.
A convicted felon who previously served two years in prison for bilking investors in unrelated ventures, Sowash made the move to protect his assets just a month after he suggested in an interview with NBC News that he might not declare bankruptcy “because I can’t sit back and watch all those people lose homes.”
But Sowash sang a different tune in an Oct. 7 bankruptcy filing in Denver and in an Oct. 14 update that he sent to his customers.
“This has really been a week of change,” Sowash wrote. “I first want to apologize for this situation. Unfortunately, filing for Chapter 11 is the only way I can make sure the business is safe and that we can live up to our obligation of making sure everyone gets their money back.”
Tiny homes have been touted as a solution to homelessness and an affordable way for many to put a roof over their heads as home prices across the country have skyrocketed.
Sowash promoted the small residences on social media, including to his 80,000 TikTok followers. In the short videos, he portrayed himself as an upbeat, God-fearing man who was offering affordable homes with financing and no credit checks.
Sowash said his company was three years behind schedule because of supply chain problems and the rising cost of construction materials. The homes are made at a warehouse in Arapahoe County in Colorado, where he employs at least 25 workers.
But Sowash is no stranger to trouble. He was sentenced in 2009 to five years in prison for bilking more than $470,000 from investors who gambled on an amateur poker league he had founded. He also was convicted of stealing $140,000 from three people who thought he was looking for investment opportunities for them.
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