Prosecutors said Tuesday that a Michigan man was convicted in Anchorage federal court for soliciting donations for fake charitable organizations that claimed to help find jobs for handicapped people, among other crimes.
Alan Michael Bartlett, 46, of Owosso, Michigan, was found guilty of two counts of mail fraud, 20 counts of bank fraud, five counts of wire fraud, five counts of false statements to the United States Postal Service and five counts of aggravated identity theft, according to a statement from the U.S. District Attorney's Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Retta-Rae Randall said in a phone interview that the defendant had victims in other states, and the details of those Outside offenses would be brought out at his sentencing. But the charges for which Bartlett was found guilty on Monday pertained solely to an Alaska-based case, she said.
Bartlett was arrested in May 2013 in Michigan and has been jailed here since, Randall said.
Trial evidence showed Bartlett created two businesses, United States Disabled Veterans and United States Handicapped-Disadvantaged Services, prosecutors said.
"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," the statement read.
Instead, between July 2011 and January 2012, Bartlett used the companies to defraud individuals and a financial institution in Alaska, prosecutors said.
Bartlett also got donations through telemarketing and sending brochures through the mail, they said.
He used the illegally obtained money to invest in stocks, pay credit card and telephone bills and repay a defaulted student loan.
"He also submitted forged power of attorney forms with falsified notary seals to the financial institution (in Alaska) in an effort to get transactions that had been reversed by the financial institution for fraud, credited back to him," the statement read.
To dissuade one of his victims from reporting the crimes, Bartlett posed as a municipal law enforcement officer. Randall said Bartlett claimed to be an "Officer Phillips" from Arizona and told the victim two people had already been arrested in connection with the identity theft case.
Authorities traced the call to Bartlett and flew up "every police officer we could find in Phoenix, Arizona, with the last name Phillips to testify that they knew nothing about (the victim's) case and did not make any calls to Alaska."
Sentencing is set for Oct. 19; Bartlett faces up to 30 years in prison.