A Federal Way lawyer and business owner faces charges after nearly $20 million was stolen from him.
Shawn Harju is accused of fraudulently obtaining $114,000 through his own dealings as a trustee by means of false invoices and fraudulent payments. This caused the Highmore Financing Company to lose around $20 million. In June, the company filed a lawsuit for damages in King County Superior Court.
Harju is an attorney at Chrysalis Solutions, owner of Three Trees Yoga in Federal Way, and vice chair of the board of the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce.
The Federal Way Mirror newspaper has repeatedly asked Harju and Highmore for comment but has not received a response.
In the lawsuit, Highmore Financing alleges that while serving as a fiduciary for Equinox Law Group in Bellevue, Harju breached fiduciary duties and contracts, made negligent and/or intentional misrepresentations, unjustly enriched himself, and engaged in a civil conspiracy.
“The facts underlying this action arise from the specific participation of defendants Equinox and Harju in the sophisticated scheme to defraud Highmore of tens of millions of dollars,” the lawsuit states.
Highmore Financing Company stated in the lawsuit that it provided financing to Jason Greig’s company, The Greig Companies (TGC), to purchase high-end computer servers and ancillary equipment from a company called Storbyte. The equipment would then be installed and hosted by Greig and Jeffrey Sparrow’s company, Datassure.
Harju became involved in this arrangement when she entered into the first of five escrow agreements as trustee on behalf of Equinox to disburse the funds loaned to TGC by Highmore. The first escrow agreement was entered into on September 20, 2019 and the last on January 30, 2020.
Pursuant to the January 2020 agreement, TGC had repaid Highmore. However, under that agreement, which was due on May 30, 2020, TGC defaulted and had still not paid Highmore at the time the lawsuit was filed. In total, TGC owed $19.95 million.
The lawsuit states that the trust agreements specified that all funds provided by Highmore were to be transferred to Storbyte only by Harju and Equinox. But then much of the money was allegedly transferred to Greig and his companies Equinox and Harju without Highmore’s knowledge.
The complaint alleges that TGC fraudulently claimed to have funds and promised repayment after default, so Highmore did not suspect the company had been defrauded until over a year later, when the company received photocopies of instructions to Harju and Equinox that violated the escrow agreement.
The lawsuit alleges that Equinox and Harju had a prior attorney-client relationship with TGC and Datassure, which created a conflict of interest. The lawsuit alleges that Greig personally selected Equinox as a trustee to ultimately facilitate the wrongful and fraudulent disbursement of funds to himself, TGC, Datassure, Storbyte and Equinox.
The complaint alleges that Harju received instructions that violated all five escrow agreements, and that Harju and Equinox knowingly or negligently perpetuated the fraud against Highmore. Highmore claims that TGC used the funds given to them for the equipment to repay Highmore to create the impression that they were creditworthy and entitled to an increase in their credit limit. In addition, the complaint alleges that they did this to run a Ponzi-like scheme that involved embezzling Highmore’s funds.
“Equinox’s involvement as escrow agent to handle payments to Storbyte was very important to Highmore because it provided assurance that Highmore’s funds would be handled according to the Storbyte invoices funded by Highmore and included in the escrow agreements,” the lawsuit states. “As it turned out, the opposite was true. The use of the escrow agent enabled Defendants and the Greig Parties to conceal from Highmore the fact that a significant portion of the funds did not go to Storbyte at all, but were transferred to Defendants and their co-conspirators.”
The lawsuit alleges that by assuming the role of trustee for all of the trust agreements, Equinox and Harju assumed a duty to Highmore to manage and disburse Highmore’s funds in accordance with the terms of the trust agreements. In addition, the lawsuit states that Harju and Equinox were obligated not to engage in self-dealing, but ended up receiving $114,000 because they disbursed Highmore’s funds to themselves rather than to Storbyte.
As of August 15, Harju and Equinox have filed motions to dismiss, and the hearing to determine the motion is scheduled for October 18. The trial date is set for June 30, 2025. Storbyte also faces a lawsuit from Highmore and has filed motions to dismiss, which were denied, according to the lawsuit.
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