Criminalizng Bad Business
Several days ago, I attended along with twenty or so of my clients, a meeting with Chief of Police, a Crown Attorney, and senior Detective. The purpose of the meeting was to explain why fraud charges could not be brought against a noted franchisor fraud.
The key to the Chief/Crown's position was this: how could we prove to the Jury that the individual was a criminal as opposed to simply being a bad businessman?
However, in Grand Rapids, we have an excellent example of a Judge not buying the bad businessman excuse.
A judge did not buy John Sims' excuse that bad business led to the downfall of his ATM leasing company.And his victims celebrated outside the courtroom after the judge exceeded sentencing guidelines and sent the once-prominent businessman to prison for up to 21 years.
'It shows crime doesn't pay,' said Steve Morin, who said his family lost more than $450,000. 'He deserves every day.'
Sims, 51, is headed to prison for 'lying, cheating and stealing' from people he was supposed to be working with in a legitimate enterprise, Kent County Circuit Judge Mark Trusock said Tuesday. State sentencing guidelines called for 10 to 28 months.
In all, Sims was charged with a series of scams that cost partners about $750,000.
'There is a pattern of criminality here,' Trusock said, referring to fake contracts Sims presented to partners. 'This is not someone going into business and, unfortunately, the business goes bad. It's lying, cheating and stealing, and that cannot be tolerated
ATM leasing frauds are ponzi schemes in which the fraudster shows fake leases to investors, which are supposed to be generating cash, and then uses the proceeds from new investors to pay out the old investors -hiding the fact that the leases were bogus to begin with.
Lying, cheating, and stealing. The three elements that push bad business practices into the realm of criminal behavior -in this case 21 years of criminal time.
