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Michigan Business Owner Convicted of Wire Fraud

 Michigan Business Owner Convicted of Wire Fraud

Roger Lee Andrews, the owner of a Marne pallet company, has been convicted of wire fraud after he bilked friends out of more than $1.8 million to fund his online stock trading.  After the verdict was reached on Thursday May 1st, United States District Judge Robert Jonker revoked Andrews’ bond and ordered that the be held until sentencing.  Andrews, 54, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

According to the indictment, Andrews solicited money from three investors in order to improve a property located in Indiana.  He told the investors that he would be able to sell the property to the state of Indiana and make a substantial profit.  Instead, Andrews lost all of their money in high-risk margin trading and eventually filed for personal bankruptcy in November of 2009.  Prior to the bankruptcy filing, Andrews altered his 2008 year-end account statement to make it appear as though he had a balance of nearly $2 million.  In reality the account balance was less than $10,000.  Court records also show that Andrews admitted to never actually owning the property in Indiana during his bankruptcy filing.

“The truly sad part of this case is that Andrews preyed on long-time friends and business acquaintances. He used those relationships and his victims’ misplaced trust as a means to commit his scheme, and they have suffered tremendously as a result,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Miles Jr. said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this type of fraud is all too common in our district, and we remain committed to prosecuting those who engage in it,”

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigated and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Christopher O’Conner and Clay Stiffler.