Aspen Odyssey: A Long Strange Trip...

Aspen Odyssey: A Long Strange Trip...Seeking to escape the insanity that plagued the nation in the late sixties, Spencer F. Schiffer and his young wife fled New York as soon as he graduated law school in 1971 to spend a winter ski bumming in Aspen while trying to figure out what to do with their lives. By what he describes as simple twists of fate, he ended up practicing law in Aspen with clients ranging from drug smugglers to Donald Trump. Among them was Aspens largest landowner in

Seeking to escape the insanity that plagued the nation in the late sixties, Spencer F. Schiffer and his young wife fled New York as soon as he graduated law school in 1971 to spend a winter ski-bumming in Aspen while trying to figure out what to do with their lives. By what he describes as simple twists of fate, he ended up practicing law in Aspen with clients ranging from drug smugglers to Donald Trump. Among them was Aspen’s largest landowner in 1981, Hans Cantrup. When Cantrup was forced into bankruptcy in 1983, it set off an unlikely chain of events that were the catalyst for dramatic changes, not only to Aspen’s complexion, but to its very core, its heart and soul. 

Cantrup’s properties were purchased out of bankruptcy by the owner of a Texas savings and loan using the bank’s funds, lost the properties in foreclosure, and ended up in prison. Enter Donald Trump, who made a deal with the foreclosing bank to purchase a prime parcel at the base of Aspen Mountain to build a hotel, contingent on the bank getting title at the end of the foreclosure process, but the bank never got title. At the very last hour for redemption of the properties under Colorado law, an unknown developer from D.C., Mohamed Hadid, wired over forty-two-million dollars to the Public Trustee and redeemed all the properties through a lien he purchased from a bank owned by Adnan Khashoggi, the notorious arms dealer of Iran-Contra fame. Adding intrigue, the source of Hadid’s funds was the SAAR Foundation, a charitable organization later investigated for money laundering and funding terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda, and was dissolved just prior to 9/11. Ironically, Hadid lost the properties to members of the Saudi royal family, who then became Aspen’s largest landowners. 

The story is a page-turner, filled with ironies and fascinating anecdotes about Aspen in the seventies and eighties, including the unsolved car bomb murder of notorious local cocaine smuggler Steven Grabow in 1986.

About the Author:

Spencer F. Schiffer practiced law in Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley from 1971 until retiring in 2016.  He served as Chairman of the City of Aspen Planning and Zoning Commission from 1973 to 1975 and vice president of the Aspen School Board from 1990 to 1995. He earned his undergraduate degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from St. John’s University. He is the proud father of two daughters and two grandchildren, and now lives in Carbondale, Colorado with his wife and dog. He spends most of his time playing golf, riding his bike, skiing, and writing.

Reviewed by Roger Marolt of the Aspen Daily News