Bloomfield Hills Resident Sentenced to Three Years on Insurance Fraud and Investment Fraud Charges

A Bloomfield Hills resident was sentenced in federal district court late yesterday on charges of defrauding an insurance company and, in a separate case, investment fraud, United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced.

McQuade was joined in the announcement by Special Agent in Charge Daryl McCray, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and Special Agent in Charge Robert D. Foley, III, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Patrick D. Winter, age 54, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow to serve a sentence of three years’ imprisonment on charges of mail and wire fraud.

Evidence presented during the August 21, 2012 guilty plea and at yesterday’s sentencing established that Winter, as the manager of D.K.E., Inc., which owned a commercial office building at 21751 W. Nine Mile Road in Southfield, Michigan, caused a false, inflated, and fraudulent claim to be submitted to the Secura Insurance Company, stemming from a fire that substantially damaged that building on October 4-5, 2004.

According to documents submitted to the court by the defense, Winter intended to inflate the insurance claim by as much as $232,521. Secura did not pay the nearly $1 million claim, which is the subject of civil litigation in Oakland County.

In a separate case, Winter was sentenced for soliciting over $645,500 from a 60-year-old Nevada woman between July 2008 and August 2010, convincing her to liquidate her entire life savings and give the proceeds to him. He falsely promised to invest the money in a real estate development which would pay high returns. Winter flew to Nevada, met with the victim, and earned her trust, in part, by showing her a picture of his large family (the defendant has nine children). He corresponded with her about personal bankruptcy and about letting her home go into foreclosure, all the while soliciting tens of thousands of dollars more from her. Winter used the money for personal expenses. The victim lost her house and was forced to live with her parents.

United States Attorney McQuade commended the investigations of the Southfield Fire Department; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for bringing this case to a successful conclusion.