Leasing executive charged with $3.5 million fraud

Michael Conway, the president of office equipment leasing company Choice Office Solutions, has been arrested on charges of defrauding an individual investor and De Lage Landen Financial Solutions Partner (DLLFSP) of approximately $3.5 million, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced.

Conway faces charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a scheme whereby he forged lease agreements. The company’s offices in Fairfield, New Jersey have been searched by FBI agents.

The charges and arrest were announced by Kelly Currie, acting US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Diego Rodriguez, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York field office.

“As charged in the criminal complaint, Conway claimed to have lucrative contracts to lease office equipment with more than 50 companies, including law firms, universities, and a major league baseball franchise, and relied on these lease contracts to obtain financing. In reality, the only one making money on these phony lease agreements was the defendant himself,” Currie stated.

Forgeries

According to the details lodged with a federal court in Brooklyn, from around March 2014 to August 2015, Conway forged lease agreements with various companies in the business of leasing office equipment, and then used these fraudulent agreements to obtain financing from private investors.

As part of the scheme, Conway induced an individual investor to become partners with him in the leasing business. Conway would then purportedly secure a lease from a company, present the signed lease and invoices to the individual investor, who would provide funds to purchase the office equipment to be leased.

Using this technique, Conway presented the individual investor with leases from 58 companies, including law firms, universities, hospitals, and hotels. The unnamed individual investor paid Conway approximately $3.1 million to purchase office equipment. In reality, most of the leasing agreements that Conway provided to the individual investor were fraudulent, and Conway pocketed most of the individual investor’s money.

New York Mets

One of the fraudulent leasing agreements was purportedly with the New York Mets baseball team. Convinced that a deal had been set up with the major league sports club, the individual investor wire transferred approximately $500,000 to Conway’s bank account ostensibly to purchase office equipment.

Conway then used the same forged lease agreement, and a forged authorization letter from the New York Mets purportedly signed by Jeffrey Wilpon, the team’s chief operating officer, to obtain financing from DLLFSP. Based on these fraudulent documents, DLLFSP wire transferred a total of approximately $313,000 to Conway’s bank account.

The FBI points out that charges in the complaint are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, Conway faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years’ imprisonment and a maximum sentence of 22 years.

The investigation was undertaken in connection with the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which was establish to bring together a coalition of law enforcement, investigatory, and regulatory agencies to wage a coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.