Vorce sentenced in $24M fraud case

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Convicted swindler Michael Vorce was sentenced Thursday to a dozen years in federal prison for a $24 million fraud case.

The 31-year-old Grand Rapids man, who appeared in U.S. District Court in an orange jail jumpsuit, could have faced more time in prison, but got a break for cooperating with the government.

Judge Robert Holmes Bell sentenced him to 12 years each for a pair of fraud charges, 10 years for money laundering and a year for income tax evasion -- all to run concurrently. He also ordered him three years on supervised release, 200 hours of community service and to pay restitution.

Area banks are still out of $16 million, and Macatawa Bank was one of the biggest losers, federal prosecutors say.

Bell called Vorce "very, very clever, very clever," and chided him for beginning a second round of fraud after being caught the first time. That, the judge said, was "unthinkable."
His fraud, he said, "touched nearly every major banking institution."

Vorce wiped away tears as he addressed Judge Robert Holmes Bell before sentencing.

"I'm just ashamed of who I became" during his "selfish, reckless pursuits," he said. "The actions are mine, I committed them. The person who did it, that is not me, that is not the better man inside me."

He apologized to his victims, including banks and their customers, and his wife, son and the rest of his family. He said he was "on a journey to improvement...to grow and become a better man."

"I will never be in this position again."

He got a break in a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney's Office after he agreed to work with them in other criminal cases.

Vorce gave sworn testimony, including in front of a grand jury, against two former business associates. They include former Kent County Sheriff's Deputy Ryan Steensma, who may have falsified documents to entice investors into putting their money into business ventures. That appears to violate wire fraud statutes, according to the motion.

Steensma is owner of a security company known as Redline 22, which works for companies in the Middle East and Africa.

"We are continuing the investigation of those two people," Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Verhey told the judge on Thursday.

Vorce also testified in a Wisconsin homicide case, helping the prosecutor to convict a defendant.

"Mr. Vorce cooperated in a first-degree murder case in Milwaukee County, involving a very ugly homicide of a 21-year-old woman," Vorce's attorney, Larry Willey wrote in a sentencing memo.

Willey told Judge Bell today that Vorce went beyond just testifying in exchange for a break when he came forward in the Milwaukee murder case. Vorce shared a cell with the murder suspect, Calvin Pirtle, in Milwaukee County Jail and has told police the man bragged almost daily about the murder and other crimes.

"The brutality of it caught my eye, and also the fact that Mr. Vorce never contacted me, never contacted me to say why don't you get together with (federal prosecutors) to see what kind of credit I can get."

Instead, Vorce contacted Milwaukee detectives and testified against the killer, helping lead to a conviction, Willey said.

"He thought that was the right thing to do," Willey said. Willey called Vorce a "good person."

Vorce also cooperated with other government agencies and the banks that were victims of his fraud, according to a sentencing memo.

Vorce has agreed to forfeit his assets to the government and has transferred all that he owns to the banks, the memo states.

Despite the cooperation, the federal prosecutor asked the judge to consider the message he would send to "the next Michael Vorce. The community is watching this case."

"Keep in mind the general deterrence factor a sentence like this carries," Verhey said.

Vorce and James Jett were charged with bank fraud in 2008 over a scheme to use false information to get bank loans to buy non-existent yachts, and then used the money to buy and sell gold.

He used fake names and titles of phantom boats to acquire millions of dollars in fraudulent loans from area banks. Originally, he was charged with 10 counts of bank fraud, three counts of money laundering, aggravated identity theft, wire fraud and failing to file an income tax return.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud, including one from Wisconsin, each with a maximum sentence of 30 years.

He also agreed to plead guilty to money laundering, a 10-year maximum, and failing to file the tax return on a gross income of more than $11 million in 2006, a crime with a maximum penalty of a year in prison.

Vorce's cooperation, according to federal prosecution, knocked five years off his sentencing.