Convicted con man whose salacious Obama allegations recently resurfaced has ties to Pueblo

A man who used to live in Pueblo and alleged — without proof — he had sex and did drugs with former President Barack Obama has ties to Pueblo. He was once wanted by local law enforcement after they suspected he defrauded one of his neighbors.

Lawrence “Larry” Sinclair publicized his claims about Obama in 2008 but reiterated them this week in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Sinclair lived some time in Colorado and has a long history of run-ins with the law, especially crimes involving fraud.

Records show that a warrant for his arrest was issued in Pueblo in 2001, but local law enforcement authorities say that warrant is no longer active.

Here's what to know about Sinclair and the allegations made against him in Pueblo.

Sinclair’s criminal history in Pueblo

Sinclair allegedly stole a tax refund check from a neighbor who trusted him, according to a 2001 police report filed with the Pueblo Police Department.

He also was charged with a traffic violation in Pueblo in 1999 — not complying with a “traffic control device” — but pleaded not guilty and that charge was dismissed.

A criminal history search from the Colorado Bureau of Investigations shows three recorded arrests in Colorado for Sinclair, all in the 1980s.

One of those arrests was in Lakewood in 1986 for fraudulent use of credit cards, but Sinclair also had outstanding charges in Pueblo for check fraud.

He was sentenced to 16 years in jail on forgery charges and had a difficult time in prison. Politico reported that he was disciplined 97 times and was transferred to different prisons around the state before eventually landing at the state’s maximum security location.

What happened with the arrest warrant in Pueblo?

The Politico report from 2008 stated that Sinclair had an active warrant for his arrest issued by the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office in connection with the alleged theft and forgery in 2001.

Former Pueblo County Undersheriff J.R. Hall told Politico that Sinclair’s arrest warrant didn’t allow for extradition to Colorado, so he wouldn’t face consequences unless he was detained within state lines.

An affidavit of probable cause for an arrest warrant was filed by Pueblo PD Detective Michele Ellis on May 4, 2001, less than three months after Sinclair’s former neighbor filed a police report.

A records clerk with Pueblo PD and the public information officer for the sheriff's office confirmed to the Chieftain they have no records of active arrest warrants for Sinclair.

A Pueblo court clerk told the Chieftain by phone that the court's only files on Sinclair are from the traffic charge in 1999.

Jeff Chostner, Colorado’s 10^th Judicial District Attorney, told the Chieftain in an email that his office also has record of the 2001 fraud incident but he could not confirm details about the warrant, such as when it was issued or whether it's active.

Chostner was first elected to the position in 2012.

Sinclair’s theft and forgery allegations in Pueblo

The Pueblo PD case file, obtained by the Chieftain through an open records request, states that Sinclair allegedly helped a trusting neighbor prepare her 1999 taxes. But she never received her 1999 income tax check of $2,673.04.

That’s because Sinclair allegedly stole the check and deposited it into his account at Pueblo Bank and Trust — police say he deposited $2,000 and took the rest in cash.

Sinclair's neighbor filed a report with Pueblo PD in February 2001.

According to a summary of a police interview with the victim, she was traveling to visit family in Texas in early 2000 and Sinclair collected her mail for her while she was gone. She contacted the Internal Revenue Service in June after her check never came — they told her it had been cashed.

After filling out affidavits of forgery, the neighbor received a copy of the check from the IRS and said it was clear that the signature endorsing the IRS payment didn’t match her own on file.

Where is Sinclair now?

Sinclair has been arrested in the United States at least two times since the arrest warrant was issued in Pueblo: in South Carolina for disorderly conduct in 2007, and in Washington D.C. in 2008 for an alleged larceny in Delaware. The Washington D.C. arrest was made just after Sinclair had spoken at a press conference detailing to reporters his allegations against Obama.

Sinclair ran for mayor in 2018 in Cocoa, a small Florida city along the Atlantic coast. He received the smallest amount of votes among the candidates running, with 30%.

Sinclair’s allegations about Obama were never substantiated. Politico reported that the website whitehouse.com offered him $100,000 if he could pass a polygraph test, but the results “indicated deception.” Sinclair and his attorney disputed the accuracy of the test.

The Daily Mail reported that Sinclair grew up in South Carolina but now lives in Mexico.

Sinclair’s interview with Carlson on X has garnered nearly 33 million views as of early Friday afternoon.

But the platform’s new owner, billionaire businessman Elon Musk, tweeted his skepticism of Sinclair’s allegations shortly after Carlson’s video published. “Of course, the probability that his claims are true would have to rest on objective evidence, rather than claims made by someone with a dubious history,” Musk wrote.

In his interview with Carlson, Sinclair denied that he is a “fugitive” or has avoided “persecution.”

“I've never wasted taxpayer money and any sentence I've ever been given, I've served,” Sinclair said.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey. Please support local news at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: How a con man who alleges he had sex with Obama has ties to Pueblo