— Two former West Michigan business owners could face decades in prison for an alleged $2.5 million fraud scheme.
Gregory Hite and Bridget Bureau ran businesses across the region for recreational vehicle and trailer sales, manufacturing and repair. The businesses operated under a range of different names, including Great Lakes Recreational, Alpine Trailer Sales, Great Lakes of West Michigan, Great Lakes Trailer Manufacturing, GLR Transport and Great Lakes Recreational Brokerage, according to an indictment.
According to the federal indictment, released this week, investigators said the pair used stolen identities to obtain millions of dollars’ worth of loans between 2016 and June 2020.
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Investigators say the duo used to run an RV business in Colorado, which nearly went bankrupt. Their credit was reportedly so bad they couldn’t get loans.
Prosecutors say the pair moved to West Michigan, launching businesses in Coopersville, Dorr and Byron Center. They allegedly stole their family members’ and employees’ social security numbers and driver’s licenses, using their good credit to get loans.
The victims had no idea their names were attached to the loans, investigators said.
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“In the documents, defendants falsely represented those individuals as co-owners or guarantors for the loans when they had not consented to be,” the indictment reads. “Defendants electronically submitted the fraudulent loan documents using the internet from Michigan to the lenders who were located in other states.”
Over four years, the feds say, the pair secured at least 55 fraudulent loans and credit advances, adding up to a $2.5 million loss.
Mark Totten, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, told WOOD TV-8 the alleged criminal activity “hurts a lot of people.”
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“It hurts the lenders who gave money believing they would be rightly paid back, it hurts those people whose identities were stolen,” Totten said. “It could have long-term effects on them. It perhaps hurts consumers as well, who thought they were dealing with a good-faith honest business.”
The location in Coopersville shut down, the indictment alleges, because “(defendants’) collateral was repossessed by a lender.” Investigators say the Dorr location closed for similar reasons.
Hite and Bureau moved to the Byron Center location in September 2019 and started manufacturing trailers instead, according to court records. Investigators say they kept moving to different locations to avoid detection by lenders.
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“The scheme that we have described in our indictment demonstrates a willingness at every turn to try to hide this behavior: being willing to move the location of the business, being willing to change the name of the business, impersonating the voices of the people who had their identities stolen,” Totten said.
Investigators say victims eventually caught on after lenders filed civil suits against them.
Hite and Bureau face multiple federal charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. The most serious charge carries up to 20 years in prison.
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Totten said his office is committed to holding people who commit fraud accountable.
“This case touches a lot of criminal patterns that we’re seeing that especially are hurting some of the more vulnerable populations in West Michigan,” Totten said.
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“We often see elderly citizens who are victims of scams, who perhaps are victims of identity theft. We want to make sure we are providing an effective deterrent, that there’s a message that’s getting out there to criminals that if you engage in this type of behavior, the federal government is going to come after you.”
If convicted, the pair will be required to forfeit at least $5 million.
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