Michigan Man Sentenced To 13 Years In Prison For Fraud And Aggravated Identity Theft By Using Fake Charitable Organizations

Anchorage, Alaska - U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that a Michigan man was sentenced in Federal Court in Anchorage for making numerous false statements, identity theft and engaging in a scheme to operate fake charitable organizations.

Alan Michael Bartlett, 46, of Owosso, Michigan, was sentenced by Chief United States District Judge Ralph R. Beistline to 13 years in prison and five years of supervised release for two counts of mail fraud, 20 counts of bank fraud, five counts of wire fraud, five counts of false statements to the U.S. Postal Service, and five counts of aggravated identity theft.  Bartlett was convicted by a jury on July 27, 2015.  

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Retta Randall, who prosecuted the case, and the evidence presented at trial, Bartlett had established two businesses, United States Disabled Veterans, LLC, and United States Handicapped-Disadvantaged Services, LLC, whose alleged mission was “to help provide real jobs for disabled & disadvantaged Americans.” The companies claimed to sell products for donations, the orders for which would “provide jobs for the handicapped.”  There were no “jobs,” and the donations received did not go to veterans or the disabled and disadvantaged.  Instead, these companies were used by Bartlett between December 2009 and December 2012, in a scheme to defraud individuals and financial institutions in Alaska and elsewhere, and obtain additional monies belonging to individual donors.

The evidence at trial showed that Bartlett solicited donations through telemarketing calls and through the mailing of brochures from his companies. Upon the receipt of small donations by check, Bartlett created counterfeit demand drafts using information printed on the solicited checks, including the financial institution name, financial institution routing number, and associated customer account number. He then negotiated the counterfeit demand drafts via fraudulent electronic payment transactions for his personal financial gain and benefit - investing in his E*Trade accounts, paying credit card bills, paying for Verizon Wireless telephone service, and paying on his defaulted student loan with the United States Department of Education.  He also submitted forged power of attorney forms with falsified notary seals to the financial institutions in an effort to get transactions that had been reversed by the financial institution for fraud, credited back to him.

Bartlett used personal identifying information obtained from people who sent donations thinking they were giving to charitable organizations, to submit false change of address requests to the United

States Postal Service.  He forged the signatures on the change of address requests and listed the street address of his residence in Owosso, MI, as the forwarding address. As a result, he received investment and financial information which should have gone directly to donors/victims.

Using the fabricated persona of a municipal law enforcement detective, Bartlett contacted one victim by telephone to dissuade the victim from reporting or providing additional information about Bartlett’s scheme to law enforcement.

Bartlett learned about the telemarketing business and obtained donor call lists when employed by telemarketing companies in Arizona in 2008; those companies were shut down in 2009 by the Federal Trade Commission for making false representations that they were charities and that donations/purchases would go to help handicapped or disabled people

Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Beistline stated that Bartlett was “truly a danger to the community.”  Bartlett preyed on “the innocent, the elderly, and the ill, and showed no remorse.”  Bartlett had attempted to obtain the pension benefits of an elderly man with Alzheimer’s and to access a bank account of another with dementia. 

Ms. Loeffler commends the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for the investigation of this case.  Anthony Galetti, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service stated, “Today’s sentencing shows that any criminals who use the U.S. Mail to commit fraud will be caught and prosecuted.  All of our fraud cases are important; however, instances like this case when the fraudster chose victims who are elderly are a priority for Postal Inspectors.”