Lexington Blue owner operated ‘a cult’ of fraud, intimidation, employees say

The owner of Lexington Blue, the roofing company accused of defrauding homeowners and insurance companies, ran his firm as a cult of personality.

Brad Pagel encouraged employees to take psychedelic drugs, lectured them for hours about his own metaphysical beliefs and cheated them out of money, say several former workers interviewed by the Herald-Leader.

He routinely berated them under the guise of encouragement and bombarded sales team leaders and managers with hundreds of intimidating texts, messages and voicemails a day.

“He’s a psychopath,” said Alex Sekulic, a former sales team leader who joined Lexington Blue in February 2024. He only lasted about three months.

“The whole place was built off of fear … that you were going to lose your job, fear of Brad,” he said. “He would berate us constantly, say we’d be fired, say our families are not important, this job is all that’s important.

“We were all terrified of Brad’s psychotic nature.”

The 42-year-old Pagel has not responded to multiple requests by the Herald-Leader for comment. Neither has his attorney, Philip Lawson of True Guarnieri Ayer in Frankfort.

The 10-year-old company and its founder, who often called himself “Rev. Dr. Brad Pagel,” claimed on the job recruiting site Indeed to have completed more than 8,500 roofing projects, with plans to expand in 2025.

But he is neither a minister nor a doctor, and instead of growing this year, the company collapsed and closed.

Lexington Blue’s demise has left potentially hundreds of customers desperate to get back thousands of dollars in deposits for roofing repairs that never happened.

Customer lawsuits are piling up, and Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is investigating fraud complaints.

When Pagel closed Lexington Blue abruptly on April 26, he posted an online letter to customers explaining the company hoped to pass open jobs to another company.

But just five days later, in a subsequent message to customers, Pagel said the subcontractor backed out, and he was looking for someone else to take over.

Since then, Pagel has said nothing directly to customers. On his social media, he announced he’s left Lexington and blamed his staff for the business failure:

“After 5 months of unintentional business challenges, including insolvency, sabotage, and mistakes made by my staff without my full knowledge, I find myself being singled out and vilified for the amusement of a few lost souls,” Pagel posted on Facebook on April 30.

“You are media zombies — the blind leading the blind, guided by lies and grossly exaggerated claims.”

Who is Brad Pagel?

Pagel is not a Kentucky native. Records indicate he was born in Arizona in October 1982. It is unclear what brought him to the Bluegrass State, but he does not appear to have gone to college here or anywhere else.

He told Lexington Blue employees he had a difficult upbringing. In a video that he posted on his social media, Pagel said he “grew up homeless, with a hooker who was hooked on crystal meth.”

Pagel moved to Kentucky in 2005, and court records show he’s had financial and legal difficulties stretching back to 2007, including a contentious dispute over custody arrangements and child support payments for a now-adult daughter.

In November 2020, Pagel bought a four-bedroom, 4 1/2-half bath house in the Beaumont subdivision for $619,000. In December of that year, he married Courtney Harrison, a former Lexington Blue employee, and they have a son.

Pagel and his family lived in Beaumont until January 2025, when he sold his house for more than $900,000 after settling several liens on the property.

His only known address now is a post office box in Destin, Florida.

In a social media post made in early May, he said: “The real reason I left Lexington after 20+ years? The Ongoing Petty Hatred.”

On his lengthy author page on Amazon, where he self-publishes such books as “Roof Warrior” and “The Alchemy of Greatness” under the name Dr. Brad Pagel, he says he’s “more than an author — he’s a transmission.”

Pagel does not claim to have any formal education or degrees. Instead, he touts himself as “a lifelong student of human potential, a high-performance sales strategist and a metaphysical philosopher” who has built “a rare bridge between the material and the mystical.”

His LinkedIn profile, his Facebook and Instagram reference “Atlas Shrugged,” the dystopian Ayn Rand novel beloved by Libertarians. His social media includes a mix of images of actor Keanu Reeves as Neo in the “Matrix” films, as well as photos of his son.

Under the social media handle @LeanDadDevelopment, Pagel shares juicing recipes, exercise tips and motivational talks on YouTube while on walks through the Beaumont neighborhood.

“This is Brad Pagel, AKA Leeeean Dad, coming at you live in one take, rough, rugged and raw ... Today’s talk is gonna be about getting rid of the negative, the weak, the heavy, the shit in your life that does not jive with where you’re trying to go.”

In his YouTube bio, Pagel calls himself “an Honorable Kentucky Colonel, Reverend of Universalism, Doctor of Metaphysics, Certified Life coach and Public Speaker who has helped hundreds of young men and women to change their lives for the better.”

But nine former employees (and one almost-employee) who spoke with the Herald-Leader paint a different story.

Working at Lexington Blue was ‘incredibly toxic’

Former employees told the Herald-Leader that Pagel’s methods were unorthodox. The roofing company, they said, was “incredibly toxic” and a “grueling place to work.”

The turnover was constant: New recruits would be lured by ads on hiring sites like Indeed, touting massive earning potential.

Week after week, a new cohort of sometimes a dozen would arrive, be vetted by Pagel’s subordinates (hiring was often based on appearance) and get two or three days of training.

Job candidates sometimes met Pagel right away, other times not for weeks.

They were then taken to a neighborhood to knock on doors and see if they could convince a homeowner to let them up on the roof.

Team leaders would go with them, sometimes in pairs, to coach the trainees and see if they were going to sink or swim.

Some left immediately, others lasted a few weeks: Because the sales reps were all working on 10% commission, there was no paycheck until they closed a deal and got that first deposit, usually from an insurance company.

There were no benefits, but if a sales rep could succeed, the rewards promised to be big.

Tim Umstead was living in his car in April 2024 when he saw Lexington Blue’s Indeed ad. He’d never worked in sales or roofing before, but after a few days of training, he was knocking on doors.

He lasted 2 1/2 months at the company before he quit.

“I sold four roofs, made $1,700 total, probably brought in $35,000 in insurance,” Umstead said.

How many of those roofs got built? “I don’t know,” he said. “I’m pretty sure none.”

By the end of June 2024, he left. “I didn’t want to be in a cult of a corrupt company,” Umstead explained.

The sales reps were supposed to get two checks for each job: One when the original deposit was paid, and a second when the job was completed and fully paid off. But Lexington Blue would take months to get to a job, if at all, he said.

“No one stuck around. No one got that second check,” Umstead said.

How Pagel treated employees

On days when it was raining and the sales reps couldn’t go out, employees had to watch “Boiler Room” and “Wolf of Wall Street” — movies that feature high-pressure and often fraudulent sales — for inspiration.

The reps were told to work the phones in the morning and spend their afternoons in the neighborhoods, leaving flyers and knocking on doors. They were expected to work until the sun went down at least six days a week.

Employees believed Pagel was always listening to them in the office and in their vehicles, Umstead said.

Even though they were not hourly workers, if they spent too much time in the office, Pagel would come on over a speaker, Umstead said, “and say, ‘Get your ass back to work.’”

Pagel also told them odd little lies:

▪ He claimed he didn’t have a driver’s license, for instance (he does, according to court records.)

▪ That the company was organized as a not-for-profit (it wasn’t, according to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office.)

▪ And because of its non-profit status, employees had to perform monthly acts of service (there is no such legal requirement.)

Workers were ordered to donate blood, give to food drives and work on Habitat for Humanity housing projects.

“We were always told this company’s not for profit, so we had to do it,” said David Hodgson, a former sales team leader who worked at Lexington Blue from June 2024 through October 2024.

Eventually, those who stayed would meet Pagel.

Some were bemused by his antics, which sometimes included self-taught martial arts: Pagel, who is 5-foot-9, according to his driver’s license, once kicked the office ceiling just to prove he could.

But others were not: Pagel fired a trainee who looked bored for not sitting up straight, a former employee said.

Taylor Stokes joined Lexington Blue in April 2023. He’d been working there for almost six months when Pagel came in to supervise a week of “Lexington Blue University” training, which consisted mostly of watching Pagel’s YouTube videos.

“He just talked about himself for four hours ... his childhood, how he got where he is, pointless stuff, metaphysical stuff,” Stokes said. “Brad’s a pretty extreme person. ... He’s an acquired taste.”

Stokes, who lives in Frankfort, liked the work and made good money once he got the hang of it.

“An average check was $2,000. My biggest check was $6,000. But I’ve seen people have $14,000 paychecks two weeks in a row,” Stokes said.

Then, in May 2024, Stokes fell when a ladder slid out from under him while he was checking a roof. He broke his leg and couldn’t work while it mended. At first, he was still getting paid as the roofs that he’d sold were completed.

Then the checks from Lexington Blue started bouncing, he said.

He confronted Alex Southwell, the Lexington Blue general manager: “This is a multi-million dollar company, how come the bank says there’s no money in there?”

Stokes said he couldn’t get a straight answer about his money or that of his customers, who were calling him, asking where their roof was.

When he went back to work in November 2024, he expected to get $10,000 in residual back-end payments from jobs completed while he was out. But Southwell told him Lexington Blue had “absorbed” his commissions, Stokes said.

“They had us sign a paper saying if we get fired or quit, we’d lose our back-end (checks),” he said. “I was one of the best sales reps. ... They told me I was fired in September, but they didn’t tell me?”

Now, he’s lost his apartment, and he and his two young sons are living with his grandfather.

He estimates the company still owes him $30,000 from unpaid commissions, but he said he’s accepted that it’s likely gone.

“Lexington Blue messed up my finances really bad,” Stokes said.

What would he say to homeowners who feel that he and other sales reps have deceived them?

“A lot of us, it was our first time doing anything like this,” Stokes said. “They brainwash you out there.”

Promotions: Company car, Jeff Ruby’s, special coin

The intensity ratcheted up when sales reps got promoted to sales team leaders, but so, too, did the perks. They got a $400 a week salary, a company phone, a Lexington Blue-branded car and a credit card for gas.

And, personally from Pagel, they were given a large coin to signify they were now members of Pagel’s “Ordo de Libertas,” which translates to Order of Liberty or Freedom.

Employees were told to carry the coin at all times, three team leaders told the Herald-Leader, and if Pagel texted them a picture of his coin, they had to text a picture of their own back immediately or be fired.

Pagel would tell employees that “he’s a millionaire, pay attention to him. He mentioned constantly he was an avid student of psychology, trying to rattle you.,” said Sekulic, the former sales team leader..

To celebrate promotions, Pagel sometimes took the team leads and managers to Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse in downtown Lexington, where Pagel would book a private room to talk.

But not about roofing or even sales techniques, Sekulic said.

“It was always psychological nonsense: He is a god and we need to worship him. Look, it’s a cult. That is the best way to describe it,” he said.

“He would tell you how to embody him for success … that the church is wrong, your parents are wrong, he’s the only person who knows how to make you a better person. We would do that for about two hours, then we’d go to Jake’s Cigar Bar in Nicholasville ... sit around, and Brad would say, ‘Pick out cigar, get drinks, play, then we’ll talk.’”

Sometimes Pagel would corner someone alone and say, “’Am I reaching you? Are your eyes open now?’” Sekulic said.

“Things like, ‘Everything in your life is leading to this moment, and I am going to lead the way.’”

Pagel and psychotic drugs for employees

Shane Magness, who worked at Lexington Blue from January to July 2024, also got the steak-and-cigar treatment.

He said those who didn’t buy into Pagel’s way of thinking were ousted.

“One of the office managers got fired because she was a Christian, and she wouldn’t agree with it.”

Although Pagel told employees they were free to leave his “order,” those who did were fired.

“He talks about how he has transformed himself into this amazing, godlike person. ... He wanted us to feed his reality,” Magness said. “He thought we all had this super deep connection. ... It was just a company dinner.”

But Pagel had plans for a way to deepen that connection: He wanted everyone to do an ayahuasca retreat together where they would ingest the psychedelic drug. Pagel had touted the use of psychedelics in texts about his own “pilgrimage.”

First used by South American indigenous cultures, ayahuasca is a hallucinogen thought by some to have therapeutic properties. It’s become popular in recreational drug tourism, but DMT, the psychoactive compound in ayahuasca, is largely illegal in the U.S.

“He had been circulating that he wanted us to go on a retreat ... get a cabin, camping, do ayahuasca with him,” Magness said. “I don’t use drugs. That was one of the last straws. ... That’s crazy. I’m not doing that.”

“He was trying to make that mandatory. ... It was a big thing for him, to say we weren’t enlightened, that we needed to be awakened,” Sekulic added. “That’s when we quit.”

Sekulic and Magness, along with sales rep Umstead, left Lexington Blue the same day. They turned in their company vehicles and phones at day’s end, after everyone else had gone home.

“We laid low, we didn’t talk to anybody. We were terrified,” Sekulic said. “There was this impending fear of Brad just showing up. ... There’s this energy of implosive meets explosive rage.”

At least one other Lexington Blue sales team lead got a private, ayahuasca-type treatment from Pagel.

Hodgson said when he started at Lexington Blue in June 2024, he already had about five years of experience with other roofing companies. “So I told them if I wasn’t a manager within 30 days, I’d quit.”

He moved up fast, but it didn’t exactly pay off: When he got his company vehicle and gas card, the card wouldn’t work because the bank had cut it off for non-payment, he said.

“Before I got promoted, my friend who was a team lead said, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? It’s a cult.’ I didn’t realize how serious it was,” Hodgson said.

On the evening of Sept. 13, 2024, Hodgson got a text from Pagel asking about his plans for that Friday night. Hodgson had an inkling where things were headed, so he tried to put him off.

“Change of plans,” Pagel fired back, according to texts reviewed by the Herald-Leader.

“You’re at my house from 7p-7a. It’s time to rid you of depression and the burdens of your mind. ... Bring warm clothing, a backpack of comfort items, and your favorite pillow. Headphones as well. Make sure your phone and headphones are fully charged. Don’t eat anything else today. Hydrate well with water only. ... Pick up a bottle of Organic Grapefruit Juice. ... Get a large bottle. ... Keep your eyes open for synchronicities and signs starting now ...”

When Hodgson arrived at the house in Beaumont, Pagel was there with his wife and their toddler son.

“He made me do substances I didn’t want to do. It was that or be fired, and I have bills to pay,” Hodgson said.

“I thought it was bullshit. He’s a psycho. ... I was probably there until 3 or 4 p.m. the next day. I came back to earth and was like, what the (expletive)? I went home and slept for two days.”

Bounced checks and angry customers

The drug use wasn’t the only issue: Hodgson knew the company was in serious financial trouble. His commission checks had bounced, and he was hearing complaints from customers.

Hodgson said Lexington Blue’s accounting software showed Pagel was getting $10,000-$20,000 a week.

“Brad’s checks never bounced,” he said.

And there were other concerning things. Pagel had ordered Hodgson, Southwell and sales manager Daniel Liponi to fire a sales manager from Lexington Blue’s Cincinnati office in an oddly specific way.

“He had us go up there, and made sure I had a gun. ... Brad asked us to break his legs, make sure he couldn’t walk,” Hodgson said. “And he said if there was any trouble, he had a hit man on speed dial.”

Hodgson said the firing was “cordial,” with no violence.

Hodgson said Pagel and Southwell also had specific ideas about how women who worked for Lexington Blue should look.

“They told Cintas, the uniform company, they wanted sexy-cut clothes,” Hodgson said.

And Hodgson sat in on candidate interviews: “We weren’t allowed to hire anyone who was ugly or fat, no matter how good an application they had.”

Some former Lexington Blues employees have said online and to the Herald-Leader they have contacted the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with complaints about their treatment under Pagel.

Representatives for the EEOC said it could not speak about any complaints or about whether there is a potential ongoing investigation.

Pagel’s dispute with his HOA ended in jail

Pagel also told his employees that he represented himself in court, and in at least one case that is true although it did not end well for him.

Pagel conducted what one Fayette County judge called “psychological warfare” against a local attorney over homeowners’ association fees in another incident that resulted in an arrest and criminal conviction.

In 2023, Pagel got in a dispute with the Beaumont Residential Association over unpaid membership fees and fines assessed over yard signs that violated the homeowners association’s rules against advertisements.

Pagel had placed a Lexington Blue sign in front of his house on Mumford Lane, as well as one that said “Love Everybody,” a slogan that Lexington Blue had used in a promotional campaign around Lexington.

The HOA’s attorney, Eric Eaton, attempted to collect the money owed, but Pagel sent him strange responses, “some bearing thumbprints,” according to court records.

The HOA eventually placed a lien against the property and filed a lawsuit.

On Aug. 23, 2023, Fayette Circuit Court Judge Thomas Travis ordered Pagel, who represented himself in court, to pay $1,125 to Beaumont for the overdue dues while he set a date to consider the dispute over the signs.

But then things got weird.

Eaton began receiving emails from Pagel, sometimes ending with “Peace and Blessings to Your Family and Those You Hold Dear,” which Eaton interpreted as a potential threat to his family.

Six days later, Pagel, accompanied by two of his employees, came to Eaton’s law office on Main Street at Mattmiller Crosbie without an appointment.

The three men moved past a frightened legal secretary and down the hallway into Eaton’s office, unannounced, and Pagel dumped a plastic bin of coins — which Eaton estimated weighed 50 pounds — on the floor to pay off the HOA fees.

Pagel’s employees filmed the incident, and Pagel later uploaded the video to his YouTube channel.

Eaton testified it took more than an hour to pick up all the coins and another hour to take them to a Coinstar machine to have them converted to paper money.

Eaton later testified he felt he had no option but to call Lexington police.

Officers arrested Pagel, who was charged with criminal trespassing, menacing and harassment, as well as contempt of court from the arraigning judge.

Pagel apparently wouldn’t stop talking during a hearing; the contempt charge was eventually dropped. He did spend a night in Fayette County Detention Center.

When the case came to trial, Pagel again represented himself in court, telling Fayette District Judge John L. Tackett he wanted it on the record that he is “a man and an idiot in legalese, and (I) do not understand civil or criminal procedure in any way and only king’s English.”

The charges were reduced, and Pagel was convicted of misdemeanor harassment on March 29, 2024, and sentenced to time served and court costs.

Pagel brought at least one of his employees, Kamron Hilen, into the courtroom to testify about filming the coin dump incident — which Pagel played for the court on his phone.

The court found that Pagel intended to cause a disruption, amounting to “psychological warfare” with “hostile emails, vulgar voicemails and the disturbance of Aug. 29.”

Pagel appealed, arguing that the HOA attorney was “overly sensitive,” but he lost the appeal, as well.

Pagel was eventually ordered to pay the homeowners’ association more than $3,500 in fines for his signs and $27,000 in attorneys’ fees. The lien placed on his property was released after his obligations were paid.

Eaton declined to comment for this story.

What’s the future for Lexington Blue, Pagel

Although customers have contacted both the Lexington police and the Kentucky Attorney General’s office, Pagel has not been charged with a crime as of May 28.

Lexington police confirmed they referred several cases from late 2024 and early 2025 to the Kentucky Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Section, National Insurance Crime Bureau and the Kentucky Department of Insurance.

Pagel attempted to fight the Attorney General Russell Coleman’s investigation, but on May 7, Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip J. Shepherd ordered Lexington Blue to turn over business and financial records, including customer contracts for the past two years.

It’s unclear if that actually happened. According to a Fayette Sheriff’s deputy, there are no hard drives in the Lexington Blue office but there were many paper files.

According to court documents, the attorney general’s office had received 10 complaints about Lexington Blue since 2021, alleging the company “engaged in false, misleading, and deceptive practices.”

The complaints “reveal a consistent pattern of unlawful conduct,” wrote Attorney General Coleman’s office in the court filing to Shepherd. To back up that allegation, the AG’s office filed 150 pages of consumer complaints.

The filing also said the Better Business Bureau has received 48 consumer complaints “that Lexington Blue accepted large deposits without initiating or completing the agreed-upon work. Where refunds were issued, the company demanded 15% of the contract price as a cancellation fee. In cases where work was eventually performed after delays of eight to twelve months, consumers reported poor workmanship and failure to honor warranties.”

Since issuing the initial subpoena in March, Coleman’s office said it has received eight more complaints.

“The complaints filed with the Attorney General’s office and the (Better Business Bureau) demonstrate Lexington Blue regularly accepted large deposits, failed to begin or complete work, and withheld refunds. While not every breach of contract necessarily constitutes a violation of (Kentucky Consumer Protection Act), the conduct alleged goes beyond poor business judgment — it may constitute intentional deception under the KCPA,” according to the Attorney General’s filing.

Civil attorneys in Louisville have filed a potential class-action lawsuit against both the company and the owner in an attempt to recoup some of the losses for homeowners.

It is unclear how many people have been affected. According to the Louisville suit, Lexington Blue’s own website in April noted the company had more than 400 “jobs in the queue” waiting to be done.

Pagel and Lexington Blue have denied the fraud allegations in that suit and filed a motion to dismiss it.

But one homeowner may receive some compensation.

On May 13, Fayette County Sheriff’s deputies seized two Lexington Blue vehicles from their offices on Pasadena to sell to help pay off a judgment for nearly $6,000.

However, the vehicles turned out to be leased, so now the Sheriff’s office has filed a seizure order for the contents of the office, which could be sold off to pay at least some of the money back.

Some former Lexington Blue employees say they think Pagel is in Florida, where they say he spent increasing amounts of time over the past few years.

Sekulic, who left Lexington Blue in May 2024, said the money was always kept “secret” from employees.

“I guess they put all that money into those blue cars now rotting in front of the building,” Sekulic said.

But he and other former employees keep in touch.

Pagel, Sekulic said, is “like a ghost following us around.”

“I had a theory that the reasons we had those dinners, those plans for the retreat … I think Brad was looking for fall guys. All the talk about loyalty, loyalty … so he can’t be implicated.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2025 at 8:00 AM.

Janet Patton

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-379-5233

Janet Patton covers restaurants, bars, food and bourbon for the Herald-Leader. She is an award-winning business reporter who also has covered agriculture, gambling, horses and hemp. Support my work with a digital subscription