Category Archives: Fraud & Theft Crimes

Detroit Area Attorney Charged with 30 Felonies  The Homeowner Protection Unit, under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General’s Office, has filed thirty felony charges against Attorney Steven Barry Ruza and his company. These charges come in the wake of a mortgage foreclosure investigation that revealed an enormous, ongoing scam which made hundreds of thousands in […]

Facing Embezzlement and Welfare Fraud Charges In January of this year, Nicole Armbruster resigned from her position on the Lansing School Board for “personal family circumstances”. But on that same day, the Lansing School District reported to the police irregularities in the Lewton Elementary Parent Teacher Organization fund. Because Armbruster had been their former vice-president, […]

“Confidence in public safety is of utmost importance,” said Attorney General Bill Schuette in a recent press release, “As Attorney General, I have a responsibility to enforce the law and ensure public integrity. Taxpayers deserve honesty and accountability from those who work on their behalf.”

The mother of Jamarion Lawhorn, the youngest murder suspect in Kent County’s history, is now facing felony fraud charges in addition to numerous other child abuse related charges. She is accused of scamming the government out of thousands of dollars in the form of welfare fraud.

Sentencing Set in Flint Substitute Teacher Scam  In the 2003 movie School of Rock, actor Jack Black’s character Dewey Finn is an out of work Rocker who needs money. He decides to pose as his roommate, Ned Schneebly, who is a substitute teacher, and work at a private school where he teaches all of his […]

Joel Wilson Guilty of Racketeering and More It took the jury almost a full day to discuss and deliberate the charges faced by Joel Wilson – the Bay City business owner accused of running a ponzi scheme through his company – The Diversified Group. But in the end, they were unanimous in their decision, and […]

After just a single day of jury selection and only a few days of witness and expert testimony, the Joel Wilson trial began to wind down, and in closing arguments, both the prosecution and the defense explained to the court their respective positions.

The end of the week saw a number of witnesses take the stand in the Joel Wilson trial, first of which was Ann Tushaus, an accountant with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She told the court about the forensic accounting investigation she conducted in the fall of 2012. Tushaus claimed to have studied bank […]

Joel Wilson, seated in court in a subdued grey suit, with a look of mild interest on his face, is looking at a stacked deck. And it is not stacked in his favor. Wilson is accused of operating a Ponzi scheme in the Bay Area that scammed a number of local investors out of millions, […]

It happens in every profession and every walk of life – one person’s poor choices and ill-thought-out actions make everyone around them look bad. (After all, we’re lawyers – we’ve heard ALL the bad lawyer jokes!) But as one former Detroit cop is learning in the wake of a sentence for racketeering charges, this is […]