Another member of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” cast is becoming mired in legal drama — Lisa Barlow, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Sundance,” is being slapped with a lawsuit.
Bart Carlson and Yukon Construction, the Park City homebuilding company of which Carlson is president, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Utah’s 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, claiming that Barlow and two of her companies have not paid back $410,842.36 in loans, going back to 2010.
In the complaint, Carlson and Yukon claim that around May 2010, Barlow shared that she was “experiencing severe financial difficulties” with her companies, Luxe Marketing and Vida Tequila — and that, at her request, Carlson loaned money to help keep the businesses afloat. Carlson, the complaint said, agreed not to specify a time for repayment, “because of his longtime friendship with Barlow and her family.”
Barlow, through her publicist, issued a statement denying that she owed Carlson any money.
“Bart Carlson was once a business partner in a restaurant in Park City and, I thought, a friend. I am deeply saddened that he has decided nine years after our restaurant business ceased to claim that I owe him money,” Barlow said in a statement.
“To be very clear, the claim that I owe Bart or his company money is untrue,” Barlow’s statement continued. “I pay my bills and obligations and I always have. In addition, Bart has no interest in Luxe Marketing or Vida Tequila and did not invest in either business. I look forward to the truth coming out and I intend to hold Bart fully accountable for any damage this personal attack may cause me or my businesses.”
According to the complaint, Yukon loaned $171,836.37 to Barlow and the two companies between May 2010 and June 2011 — and that Carlson personally loaned another $87,100 between September 2010 and October 2015. The lawsuit also claims that Carlson started an American Express account for Barlow and paid $119,585.99 that was charged on it between 2011 and 2017, and that he paid $32,320 in 2015 to pay off a loan on Barlow’s Range Rover. The total for all those loans, the lawsuit claims, is $410,842.36.
In the lawsuit, Carlson claims that some of the loans were made to an attorney for Barlow, so Barlow’s husband, John — with whom she owns Vida Tequila — would not know about the tequila company’s financial problems.
Carlson had asked repeatedly for the money back, the lawsuit alleges, explaining he was no longer “in a position to carry that much money anymore.” Barlow brushed aside the requests, the complaint alleges, once in December 2019 with a text message with a “palm-face” emoji and the word “OVERWHELMED.”
All of this happened before “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” in which Barlow has appeared from the beginning, debuted in November 2020.
In one text exchange in early 2022, the complaint alleges, Barlow answered Carlson’s request for repayment with “We can absolutely do that,” though she added that she was “not in the best position because Sundance [had] been cancelled” earlier that year.
On the Bravo reality show, Barlow has upheld an image of an affluent entrepreneur, often touting her success, partaking in lavish parties, and even launching a skincare business for her young sons. In several scenes on the show, Barlow has been shown organizing events in Park City for movies premiering at the Sundance Film Festival — leading to her self-applied nickname, “Queen of Sundance.” In 2021 and 2022, though, Sundance canceled all in-person events in Utah and went online only, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Barlow is not the first member of the “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” cast to be taken to court. Notoriously, original cast member Jen Shah was sentenced last year to 6½ years in federal prison, after pleading guilty to her role in a nationwide telemarketing fraud scheme.
Also in 2023, cast member Heather Gay and her company, Beauty Lab + Laser, sued another cast member, Monica Garcia, for not paying for cosmetic services back in 2019 — and Garcia countersued, claiming Gay’s company’s work was “botched and negligently performed.” Garcia’s counterclaim was dismissed in January; Gay’s case is still in court.
