Jail for leasing equipment boss in $4.5 million fraud

The boss of an office equipment leasing company has been sentenced to four years in prison for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme involving a string of forged documentation.

Michael Conway, the president of Choice Office Solutions, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with a scheme where he forged numerous lease agreements to defraud an individual investor and De Lage Landen Financial Solutions Partner (DLLFSP) of more than $4.5 million. As part of the sentence, Conway was also ordered to pay $3,555,493 to the individual investor and $1,203,516 to DLLFSP in restitution.

According to evidence presented to a New York court between 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, he 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.

Investigations by local law officials and the FBI found that Conway had presented the individual investor with leases from approximately 58 companies, including law firms, universities, hospitals, and hotels, and the individual investor paid Conway approximately $3.5 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.

One of the fraudulent leasing agreements was purportedly with the New York Mets baseball team. Relying on it, the individual investor wire transferred approximately $500,000 to Conway’s bank account 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. Through this and other forgeries, Conway defrauded DLLFSP of more than $1 million.