Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge announced today that Andrew Helsel, of Grand Rapids, was sentenced to 37 months’ incarceration and $612,431 in restitution. Helsel had previously pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud and one count of filing a false and fraudulent tax return. Helsel engaged in a scheme to defraud federally-insured financial institutions by making false statements on loan application documents in order to obtain loans from those institutions. He also filed fraudulent tax returns with the IRS on behalf of himself, a company he controlled, and other taxpayers. He used those ill-gotten gains to finance a lavish lifestyle