By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
A husband-and-wife team – Gregory Hite and Bridget Bureau, of Lake – were recently sentenced to federal prison for defrauding almost 40 victims of more than $5 million dollars over a four-year period from 2016 to 2020.
They were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney to serve 150 months (12 years and six months) in prison and 51 months (four years and three months) in prison respectively and both were ordered to pay restitution of $1,952,186 to victims of their scheme.
The couple, who were charged in December of 2023 and indited in January of 2024, WOOD of Grand Rapids posted, pleaded guilty to “conspiring to commit wire fraud and unlawfully using the identities of others to fraudulently obtain financing for several former west Michigan businesses,” according to an article posted by 9 & 10 News Monday.
Reportedly, they operated the businesses under several names including Great Lakes Trailer Manufacturing, GLR Transport, Great Lakes Trailer, Great Lakes Recreational, Alpine Trailer Sales and Hites RV.
Using false identities, they obtained $5,443,982 in loans, the post said, making false statements on documents when they could not obtain loans under their own names, impersonating victims on phone calls to other victims, and used many limited liability companies to conceal their actions.
Reportedly, they stole their family members’ and employee’s social security numbers and driver’s licenses, using their good credit to get loans.
Over those four years, the pair secured at least 55 fraudulent loans and credit advances, other articles said.
Their fraud scheme fell apart when they ran out of funds and the lenders sought repayment from the victims of the identity thefts that they used to obtain the loans.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation handled the case.
