Prison for Holland man in mail fraud

HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) - A Holland man who admitted his guilt in a mail fraud scheme of more than $1 million was sentenced to prison Wednesday.

Jeffrey Folkert will spend four years in federal prison and be on a supervised release for three additional years. He was fined $7,500 and was ordered to pay restitution of $1,131,786.89.

He ran a small business called iStorm Solutions in Hamilton and defrauded family members, friends and others out of at least $1.5 million between 2005 and 2008.

He was originally accused of falsely representing that he was earning substantial revenue from Google Inc. when Internet users clicked on website advertisements.

Though Folkert never earned significant profit, he reported substantial "dividends" on the investments each month. Rather than using investors' funds as promised, Folkert deposited the money in his personal bank account, transferred money to an account outside of the United States for his personal use, purchased vehicles, and covered investor withdrawals.

Folkert mailed monthly statements to investors using the United States Postal Service, which gave the false impression that their money was actually invested as promised, earning regular dividends and that dividends were deposited into investors' accounts.

He pleaded guilty to the crime in July.