×
×
homepage logo
SUBSCRIBE

Additional felony charges filed against ‘Shark Tank’ entrepreneur

By Genelle Pugmire - | Apr 8, 2022

SARAH WEISER, Daily Herald file photo

Nate Holzapfel, the founder of The Mission Belt Company, sits for a portrait at the company's location in Provo on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. Holzapfel, who has been charged with theft, fraud and forcible sexual abuse, is no longer associated with the company.

Utah County Attorney David Leavitt on Thursday announced additional felony charges against Nathanael “Nate” Holzapfel.

Last November, the Utah County Attorney’s Office filed three second-degree felony charges in an additional case against Holzapfel.

Holzapfel is an entrepreneur who was featured on the TV show “Shark Tank” and made millions of dollars selling belts, though he is no longer affiliated with his former company.

However, according to the charges, he was scamming victims on the side and developing personal relationships with them.

After a monthlong investigation by the county Bureau of Investigations, Holzapfel was arrested April 5 and booked into the Utah County Jail. The new charges against him include one count of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, and three misdemeanor counts of lewdness, according to a press release. No bail was requested, the release said.

“We are grateful for the courts granting a no-bail hold for Mr. Holzapfel. These new violations occurred while he was out on bail in a previous case,” said Sgt. Cole Christensen, the county attorney’s investigator in these cases. “We are grateful for the courage of these victims to come forward and work with the investigation.”

Charges were also filed in a second case reviewed by the Screening Division on Thursday, adding another second-degree felony count of forcible sexual abuse.

His story was brought to light by Courtney Morton, who claims Holzapfel scammed her out of $200,000. After meeting, the two reportedly started dating. Morton turned her home over to Holzapfel, who sold it, and Morton claims she never saw the money.

The felonies brought forward in November include two counts of theft by deception and one count of communications fraud, both second-degree felonies.

The new charges announced Thursday stem from an additional victim coming forward and an ongoing investigation from the Bureau of Investigations. The investigation is expanding as additional victims are coming forward.

“We’ll continue to investigate as victims come forward. I admire the courage of that first victim who persisted, even when law enforcement told her the matter was a civil complaint and should be dropped. Clearly, with additional victims continuing to come forward, we are seeing a pattern of criminal activity that resulted in many victims and multiple felony cases. We look forward to proving each case in Court,” Leavitt said.

The Bureau of Investigations asks anyone with additional information or who believes they have been victimized to contact the attorney’s office at 801-851-8069 or colec@utahcounty.gov.