A 70-year-old Imlay City has been arrested and charged with several criminal counts after participating in a Small Business Administration loan fraud scheme. The FBI alleges that Joseph Winget, the Imlay City native, worked with his partner Franklin Ray to run a Ponzi scheme to the tune of $1.1 million after obtaining $2 million in COVID-19 relief loans fraudulently.
Before they were arrested in two months ago (in March), the two men had told the 275 investors of Imlay City’s CSA Business Solutions LLC, that each $20,000 investment made was a new truck in the fleet, claiming at the peak of the scheme that the company had 4,704 trucks and 4,909 drivers. In reality, the business only had two trucks, four drivers, and every investment was just being used to pay back their last tier of investors.
Winget, who is listed as the company’s owner, has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and one count of wire fraud. While the identity theft only carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence, both counts related to the wire fraud each carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.
