Ex-attorney sentenced in $900k fraud

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A former Zeeland attorney sentenced in a $900,000 mail fraud scheme will serve six and a half years of imprisonment and pay restitution to the tune of $1,507,172.19.

Judge Robert Jonker ordered Kenneth Hoesch, 59, to pay $1,295,518.19 in restitution to victims of the fraud and another $211,654 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, according to the US Attorney's Office. In addition to prison time, he will serve three years of probation.

Hoesch pleaded guilty in July 2012 to one count of  mail fraud   and one count of filing a false tax return for failing to report the  illegally obtained money.

Hoesch scammed people out of $900,000 through fraudulent estate planning trusts. He took clients' money, but then never put it into a trust. Some of the money came from trusts he helped set up for the American Cancer Society.