Pair Sentenced for Fraud Against Fort Wayne Company and Ordered to Pay $2.9 Million in Restitution

FORT WAYNE – Brian Nordan, 44, and Dustin Coleman, 43, both of Cassopolis, Michigan, were sentenced by United States District Court Judge Damon R. Leichty upon their pleas of guilty to wire fraud, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Tina L. Nommay.

Brian Nordan was sentenced to 42 months in prison, 2 years of supervised release and ordered to pay $2,981,357.05 in restitution.

Dustin Coleman was sentenced to 6 months in prison, 12 months of supervised release and ordered to pay 149,756.00 in restitution.

In March 2006, a dentist and owner of a local dental practice hired Brian Nordan to work as the chief marketing officer and general manager of the dental practice. Eventually, Nordan was trusted to take on even more responsibility for the day-to-day management of the dental practice. In this role, Nordan was eventually paid an annual salary of $250,000.00 per year. As general manager, Nordan was trusted to make decisions in the best interests of the dental practice and its over 100 employees.

In the spring of 2018, the owner of the dental practice became aware that Nordan had been fraudulently misappropriating funds from the dental practice for years through multiple schemes. Forensic accountants discovered that, among other mechanisms of fraud, Nordan had made use of company funds (through company credit cards and reimbursement checks) to pay for unauthorized personal expenses, used company funds to pay his personal credit cards, paid wages and benefits to his husband and sister when they were not actually working for the company, and had made unauthorized investments with his employer's money into a toothpaste company of which he was one of the owners, which sold toothpaste back to the dental practice at greatly marked-up rates. A forensic accounting determined the total fraud loss from Nordan’s fraudulent schemes, self-dealing, and unauthorized enrichment of family members to be $3,038,857.05.

Coleman was Nordan’s domestic partner and eventual spouse who was hired by Nordan in 2012 to work on marketing for the business.  Although it was found he did some work for the business, the dentist-owner of the practice did not know nor approve of Coleman’s employment.  From 2016-2018, Coleman received $149,756.00 in wages and benefits to which he was not entitled as a result of this “ghost employment” scheme. 

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Indiana Financial Crimes Task Force with the assistance of the Organized Crime and Corruption Unit of the Indiana State Police. This case was prosecuted by Acting United States Attorney Tina L. Nommay and Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah E. Nokes and Luke N. Reilander.

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