GRAND RAPIDS — Two former West Michigan enterprise homeowners might face many years in jail for an alleged $2.5 million fraud scheme.
Gregory Hite and Bridget Bureau ran companies throughout the area for leisure automobile and trailer gross sales, manufacturing and restore. The companies operated below a variety of various names, together with Nice Lakes Leisure, Alpine Trailer Gross sales, Nice Lakes of West Michigan, Nice Lakes Trailer Manufacturing, GLR Transport and Nice Lakes Leisure Brokerage, in response to an indictment.
In line with the federal indictment, launched this week, investigators mentioned the pair used stolen identities to acquire hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ price of loans between 2016 and June 2020.
Investigators say the duo used to run an RV enterprise in Colorado, which almost went bankrupt. Their credit score was reportedly so dangerous they couldn’t get loans.
Prosecutors say the pair moved to West Michigan, launching companies in Coopersville, Dorr and Byron Heart. They allegedly stole their members of the family’ and workers’ social safety numbers and driver’s licenses, utilizing their good credit score to get loans.
The victims had no thought their names have been hooked up to the loans, investigators mentioned.
“Within the paperwork, defendants falsely represented these people as co-owners or guarantors for the loans after they had not consented to be,” the indictment reads. “Defendants electronically submitted the fraudulent mortgage paperwork utilizing the web from Michigan to the lenders who have been situated in different states.”
Over 4 years, the feds say, the pair secured at the very least 55 fraudulent loans and credit score advances, including as much as a $2.5 million loss.
Mark Totten, U.S. Lawyer for the Western District of Michigan, advised WOOD TV-8 the alleged legal exercise “hurts lots of people.”
“It hurts the lenders who gave cash believing they might be rightly paid again, it hurts these individuals whose identities have been stolen,” Totten mentioned. “It might have long-term results on them. It maybe hurts shoppers as properly, who thought they have been coping with a good-faith sincere enterprise.”
The situation in Coopersville shut down, the indictment alleges, as a result of “(defendants’) collateral was repossessed by a lender.” Investigators say the Dorr location closed for related causes.
Hite and Bureau moved to the Byron Heart location in September 2019 and began manufacturing trailers as a substitute, in response to court docket data. Investigators say they saved transferring to completely different places to keep away from detection by lenders.
“The scheme that we now have described in our indictment demonstrates a willingness at each flip to attempt to conceal this conduct: being prepared to maneuver the placement of the enterprise, being prepared to alter the identify of the enterprise, impersonating the voices of the individuals who had their identities stolen,” Totten mentioned.
Investigators say victims finally caught on after lenders filed civil fits towards them.
Hite and Bureau face a number of federal expenses, together with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Probably the most critical cost carries as much as 20 years in jail.
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Totten mentioned his workplace is dedicated to holding individuals who commit fraud accountable.
“This case touches loads of legal patterns that we’re seeing that particularly are hurting a few of the extra susceptible populations in West Michigan,” Totten mentioned.
“We frequently see aged residents who’re victims of scams, who maybe are victims of id theft. We need to be certain we’re offering an efficient deterrent, that there’s a message that’s getting on the market to criminals that when you interact in one of these conduct, the federal authorities goes to return after you.”
If convicted, the pair might be required to forfeit at the very least $5 million.
