A minority owner of Joyride Brewing in Edgewater says accusations that he misappropriated $1 million from the brewery are frivolous, so he is countersuing it for $170,000.
Grant Babb, who was the general manager at Joyride until resigning in October, has been blamed by managing co-owner Dave Bergen of bankrupting the brewery through theft.
“This has nothing to do with Joyride’s ability to run a successful or profitable business but rather has everything to do with the improper and unauthorized spending, as well as financial mismanagement, of that former manager,” Bergen told customers in November.
That same day, Joyride filed for Chapter 11. Two weeks later, it sued Babb for theft.
Joyride alleges that Babb “wrote hundreds of thousands of dollars” in checks from Joyride to himself and his companies in 2022 and 2023; similarly “made hundreds of thousands of dollars” in Venmo and credit card payments to himself and his companies; and took out business loans in November 2022, May and August that saddled Joyride with $420,000 in debt.
Babb, a 20-percent owner of Joyride, also co-owns Herman’s Hideaway on South Broadway and the proposed Live Slow Brewing in Wheat Ridge. Herman’s is a defendant in Joyride’s lawsuit because it allegedly received some of Babb’s payments from Joyride.
On Jan. 31, Babb and Herman’s fired back in court, denying wrongdoing and countersuing.
They say that Babb never pocketed Joyride money, never paid his other companies’ bills with Joyride money, and never harmed Joyride financially or caused its bankruptcy.
Babb does acknowledge signing loan documents on behalf of Joyride and ensuring Joyride made payments on those loans, “including to himself and Live Slow.” But he says the payments were fully authorized and reiterates that they did not harm Joyride’s finances.
“The claims against the defendants are frivolous, groundless, vexatious, or some combination of the three,” the countersuit says. Babb wants Joyride to pay his legal fees as a result.
He also wants Joyride to repay $170,000, with interest, that Babb says he loaned it.
“Herman’s did not funnel any money from (Joyride) nor did Herman’s have any access or control over (Joyride)’s money,” that company said in its defense last week.
Unrelatedly, Herman’s is being offered for lease less than one year after Babb and its other current co-owners took it over, according to the Denver Post.
Herman’s attorneys are Andrew Contiguglia and Tara Rismani with Contiguglia Law in Denver. Babb’s are Reid Allred and Douglas Marsh with Cambridge Law in Denver.
The brewery’s lawyers are Patrick Vellone and Jeremy Jonsen with Allen Vellone Wolf Helfrich & Factor in Denver. They declined to comment on Babb’s countersuit.
Meanwhile, in its bankruptcy case, Joyride has until March 18 to craft a plan for reorganizing and emerging from Chapter 11. It has about $450,000 in assets and $1.8 million in debt, including a $100,000 loan from Babb that it lists as “disputed” on its bankruptcy paperwork.
The brewery took in $91,400 and spent $90,600 in December, the most recent month it reported its finances. Joyride says that it has tried and failed to start a new bank account.
“Due to the action of my former business partner,” Bergen wrote last month, “a bank flagged us for ‘potential fraud’ and no bank will allow us to open a new account.”
This story was reported by our partner BusinessDen.
