WINDSOR, Colo. — Dr. Judson Valstad was looking for a way to scale back on his workload.
In late 2020, the northern Colorado independent dentist thought he found the solution when he was recruited to join a local start-up geared toward helping practices like his. The company would essentially take over the business operation, convert his staff members to employees of the dental support organization (DSO) and make dentists like him partners in the DSO.
Valstad and seven other dentists between Colorado and New Mexico signed on with Ssun Health, founded by Eric Nuss, between late 2019 and mid-2021.
But within the next 18 months, that business would crumble as staff would complain of not being paid or receiving 401(k) money. Vendors also were not paid, and leases were not honored.
Nuss and the company would default on loans totaling more than $8 million. The bank then stepped in, and a court-appointed receiver was installed to take over the operation and recoup as much money as possible.
Today, some of those dental practices are closed. The ones that survived had to fight to find solutions to keep their practices. Valstad said the endeavor cost him at least $300,000, and others said they were out even more.
“It was a very messy situation all around,” Valstad said. “I think a lot of people are out a lot of money.”
Denver7 Investigates spoke with multiple sources with inside knowledge of the business, all of whom have questioned what happened and where the money went. They all say that Nuss has worked to dodge their questions and concerns. Denver7 Investigates has spent more than a year combing through documents obtained by sources and lawsuits filed against Nuss and Ssun Health.
Now, Nuss faces multiple lawsuits, a cease and desist order from the state and serious accusations of malfeasance and questionable spending that drove the business into the ground. He has also filed personal bankruptcy.
What happened to the money?
Nuss was able to secure multiple loans from American National Bank of Omaha totaling more than $8 million to fund his start-up DSO, which he called Ssun Health (his last name spelled backward).
Dentists would receive a payment up front to join and become partners. Some dentists, like Valstad, owned their buildings and would be Ssun Health’s landlord. All employees of the dental practices would then become employees of Ssun Health.
“It never should have happened,” said Cher Russell, a former Ssun Health revenue cycle manager.
She now manages the front office for Valstad’s practice, the position she held before the Ssun Health acquisition.
“So many people entrusted their livelihoods to this man. And it's all gone," she said.
Russell said Nuss spent exorbitantly and it didn’t take long for her to notice problems. In 2023, after Nuss failed to make loan payments, American National Bank defaulted on the loan, placing the business into receivership and had a court appoint a receiver to take over the business.
Multiple lawsuits were filed, including a breach of contract lawsuit from earlier this year against Nuss, filed by American National Bank.
In that lawsuit, it states that Nuss failed to pay vendors, failed to pay staff the agreed-upon salaries and benefits and failed to pay rent for its practices.
So, how did Nuss spend the $8 million? A spreadsheet obtained by Denver7 Investigates through a former staff member, who had access to company credit card charges, showed that Nuss may have used his card for questionable purchases that don't appear to be related to a dental practice.
The spreadsheet includes more than $11,000 in charges in one day at sporting goods stores, more than $5,000 spent at the Pinery Country Club and $14,890 in charges at gun shops.
Russell said that Nuss also bought cars for him and his son while the company was in bad financial shape, although those purchases do not appear on the spreadsheets.
Russell is also one of multiple employees who filed complaints with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment for failure to pay employees wages and benefits after the business was shut down. An investigation confirmed $9,517 in unpaid wages and issued a penalty to Nuss and Ssun Health for $11,036 for “willful failure to pay.”
Russell said she later received more than $8,000 from the company, after the state investigation ordered the business to pay.
Who is to blame?
Ron Bergloff runs multiple dental offices in the Denver metro area and is a long-time dental consultant. He's certified as an expert witness for court cases involving the dental business. He is aware of the situation with Ssun Health and said that Nuss "came in with a plan to take advantage of doctors."
Bergloff later made offers to the court-appointed receiver to buy some of the dental offices after Ssun Health went into receivership.
“It’s a terrible thing for these people,” Bergloff said, adding that Nuss knew that because he isn’t a dentist, he is not regulated by the state’s dental board. “That’s why he thumbs his nose.”
Nuss did not respond to multiple Denver7 Investigates requests for comment. He ignored phone calls and an email, and even avoided questions when Denver7 Investigates approached him at a conference last month in Aurora he was attending for DSOs.
The only inklings to his side of the story come from a podcast found on YouTube in the months following the collapse of Ssun Health.
“Now, I sit here with no company in my true possession and staring down the barrel of some pretty nasty financial and legal circumstances because of the bank taking the company in essence,” Nuss said on the podcast.
“It seemed to me that there were a lot of excuses and blame, but none of it seemed to be of his making,” Valstad said of what he heard on the podcast.
Russell added after watching the 37-minute YouTube video, “I wanted to scream. I wanted to call him, I wanted to go face-to-face with him and say 'What is wrong with you?' It was just an absurd video.”
Since Nuss is not a dentist, state oversight on him is limited. Nuss is not required to answer to the state's Dental Board as his partner dentists do. However, the state did take some action against the company earlier this year.
In April, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies issued a cease and desist letter ordering him to divest ownership interests held in any dental practice in Colorado. State law stipulates only a licensed dentist may be the proprietor of a dental practice.
After meeting Nuss at the conference, he told Denver7 Investigates he would call Chief Investigative Reporter Tony Kovaleski, but no calls have come in during the past several weeks. He also declared personal bankruptcy earlier this year.
Sources said he attended the Aurora conference last month in hopes of drumming up business.
“I just want people to be very careful,” Russell said. “I want them to know who (Nuss) is and what he’s done to hundreds of people. And to think twice.”
