October 12, 2012 07:57 PM UTC

"Not a Beer" Also "Not Hard to Fool" Apparently

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’ve discussed on several occasions the fascinatingly weird background of Republican Joe “Not a Beer” Coors, particularly his self-proclaimed hobby of biblical prophesizing. With that in mind, we found this story from Al Lewis of FOX Business News to be particularly ironic.

You don’t need to have any special ability to see into the future to have known that this “investment opportunity” was not going to work:

Brewery scion Joe Coors gave millions in 2002 to con artists who promised him a 75% weekly return.

That is not a typo. Mr. Coors was pitched a 75% WEEKLY return, and he bought it. Now he’s running for Congress, touting credentials as a “common sense” businessman…

… In 2002, Joe Coors ran across a couple of seemingly obvious crooks who were offering one heck of a deal–75% weekly returns for investors big enough to put down at least $10 million. Mr. Coors and a partner put $40 million into a Merrill Lynch account with the potential to borrow another $20 million on the margin. They then gave the crooks access to the account.

This is all according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Denver in some civil and criminal cases, as well as a complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against the perpetrators.

The entire article is well worth the read, in part because Lewis goes to great lengths to explain that he tried to get the story in Coors’ own words but was rebuffed by the campaign. We can’t say we blame Michelle Yi, Coors’ communications director, for not making the candidate available for questions. After all, there really is no explanation for how you fell for a scheme with a promised 75% weekly return on investment.

The idea that any responsible businessman adult would realistically expect a 75% per week return on their investment, and not have it be some kind of scam, is very difficult to comprehend, well, by any responsible businessman adult. This is a story that will be severely injurious to Coors with pretty much everyone who hears it–limited only by the fact that fewer have heard about it, and the full wackiness may not be as clear to voters without investment experience.

We suppose it could be worse. They could have promised Joe Coors the Brooklyn Bridge.