Chicago man sentenced for stealing $1.1 from Grand Traverse Band
(CBS DETROIT) - A Chicago man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, causing over $1.1 million in losses to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
Britan Douglas Groom, 66, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role alongside his co-conspirator Chester Randall Dunican, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The scheme happened from 2015 to 2016, and the two men are accused of telling the Tribe they obtained exclusive distributorship rights with a water filtration company called R.O. Distributors, which would lease water coolers to businesses in Michigan and Florida.
R.O. Distributors was actually a shell company controlled by Dunican and Groom.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Tribe invested nearly a million dollars in R.O. Distributors. Dunican then sent this investment into another shell company called Evergreen Distributors LLC before $700,000 was moved into the personal bank accounts of Dunican and Groom.
After that, the U.S. Department of Justice says Dunican told the Tribe he needed more funding to acquire more inventory. When the tribe resisted, he told them a multi-billion-dollar company called High Sierra Distributors, LLC acquired R.O. Distributors.
Dunican had asked Groom to recruit someone to act as a corporate representative for High Sierra. Groom recruited one of his friends from Illinois, who attended a meeting with a tribe pretending to be a High Sierra representative. After the meeting, before giving any funds, the Tribe found out that the man was actually a teacher from Illinois and fired Dunican.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Groom must spend three years on supervised release, pay a restitution of $1,124,292.68 and forfeit $302,052.
A sentencing hearing for Dunican is scheduled for Feb. 14.