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Federal judge in GR sentences Chicago man for wire fraud

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A Chicago man will spend 30 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to commit wire that prosecutors say cost a couple of Indian tribes more than 1-point-1 million dollars.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for Western Michigan says 66-year-old Britan Douglas Groom was ordered to pay restitution for that same amount ($1,124,292.68) and forfeit $$302,052, which is the amount of proceeds he received from the wire fraud against the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker also ordered Groom to spend 3 years on supervised release once he gets out of prison.

“This fraudulent scheme hurt every member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians," U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said. “Instead of using the funds for the benefit of all tribal members, Groom and his co-defendant lied to the tribe and used the money for their personal benefit. My office is committed to holding fraudsters fully accountable for their crimes.”

According to Totten, Groom pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. From December 2015 to December 2016, Groom’s co-defendant - Chester Randall Dunican - wasthe CEO of GTB LLC. That is a a tribal economic-development group. The attorney's office says Dunican represented to the Tribe that he obtained exclusive distributorship rights with a water filtration company, R.O. Distributors. Totten says Groom told the Tribe it would benefit by investing in R.O. Distributors and leasing water coolers that utilized proprietary technology to various businesses in Michigan and Florida. In reality, Totten says R.O. Distributors was a shell company created and controlled by Dunican and Groom.

According to a news release:

The Tribe invested nearly a million dollars in R.O. Distributors. Dunican directed other individuals to send most of the Tribe’s investment to another shell company, Evergreen Distributors LLC, before that entity transferred over $700,000.00 of the proceeds to the personal bank accounts of Groom and Dunican. Dunican then told the Tribe that he expected the business to grow and needed additional funding to continue acquiring inventory.

When the Tribe resisted, Dunican told the Tribe that a company named High Sierra Distributors, LLC, acquired R.O. Distributors and that High Sierra was a multi-billion-dollar business that could expand the water filtration business nationwide. Dunican asked Groom to recruit someone to pretend to be a corporate representative of High Sierra at a meeting with the Tribe to pitch the additional $2 million in funding.

Groom recruited a friend from Illinois who did attend the meeting pretending to be a corporate official of High Sierra. Shortly after the meeting, and before any additional funds were distributed, the Tribe discovered that this individual was actually a schoolteacher from Illinois, uncovered the fraud scheme, and fired Dunican.

“This defendant knowingly defrauded and stole money from people who trusted him to act in their best interest," said James A. Tarasca, special agent in charge of the FBI in Michigan. “His behavior – and the behavior of his co-defendant – is a betrayal of the entire Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. The FBI will continue to investigate these types of fraud and hold criminals who commit them accountable.”

A sentencing hearing for co-defendant Chester Randall Dunican is scheduled at the federal courthouse in Grand Rapids on February 14, 2023, at 4 p.m., before United States District Judge Robert J. Jonker.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Detroit Division, Lansing, and Traverse City offices. The FBI was assisted by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians Tribal Police Department and the IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Ronald M. Stella prosecuted the case. 

 

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