Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, in Grand Rapids, Michael Vorce has money to

burn. He was going to bars and tipping $1 ,000.

He was buying expensive clothes up to $20 ,000 at one visit.

He drives fast cars and fast boats.

He'd load the boat up with girls and go out and party. He was living the

lifestyle, young guy, lots of money, throwing it around.

He says he has a fleet of more than 50 luxury yachts. He has the papers to

it. That's all he needs to con trusting bank loan officers out of tens of

millions of dollars.

He told me that people didn't really care that much. They were happier to

him take them to a nice lunch.

His scam even leads him to betray an accused murderer.

Because when his boat loans come due, the question is, where are all the

I called the manufacturer, and they said, no, we didn't make any boats that

year.

August 26, 2008.

FBI agents are staking out a courier service in downtown Chicago.

Inside is the bait for a sting operation.

It's a package of loan documents designed to lure a serial bank fraudster

Michael Vorce.

He's already confessed his con in another state.

In August 2008, we thought we were dealing with somebody that was sorry for

they'd done, who'd realized that he'd gotten caught, and was just going to try

and get the best resolution that he could get.

Vorce is waiting to be formally charged and is cooperating fully.

No one can imagine he is continuing his life of crime.

He just seemed to answer our questions and explain everything in detail like he

wasn't leaving anything out.

But the truth about Michael Vorce is about to be blown wide open in this

parking lot.

Michael Vorce is a con man.

You never trust a con man.

If anyone ever wants to know where a young man in his 20s could steal more

$28 million right out from under the nose of local and national banks, the

answer is Grand Rapids, Michigan.

One reason?

There are a lot of people here that build relationships out of the

Former newspaper reporter Chris Knapp has lived here for 10 years.

People trust one another.

People's reputations are really important to them.

It's the kind of place that has faith in a local kid like Michael Vorce.

The son of two well -respected public school administrators, he graduated from

one of the top high schools in the area.

Bankruptcy attorney Robert Wardrop comes to know Vorce well.

Michael grew up in a very affluent neighborhood, probably not one of the

affluent members of the neighborhood.

That probably had some effect on him and just had a goal, I think, to be

wealthy. And he was going to get there somehow.

By 2002, he is off to a great start, working at U .S. Signal Corporation,

headquartered in Grand Rapids.

A year later, he becomes involved with Boeing, a cutting -edge communications

company that is setting up voice -over Internet telephone service in Iraq.

Boex had these major contracts to create telecom systems that helped link the

country together after the war. You know, very interesting company and very

impressive to people that might have dealt with Michael on the outside.

Boex gives Boers credibility and stature and shares in the company that one day

may be worth millions.

Now the part of the rich kid in town comes easy.

In 2005, he leaves Boets.

Boets tells people that he is going into the business of buying and selling

yachts, and he rents office space downtown.

For Assistant U .S. Attorney Tim Verhey, Force's business location sends an

obvious message.

This is Bridgewater Place. It's the nicest office building in Grand Rapids.

nice inside, very modern, up -to -date office equipment. It just says success.

And now everything about Michael Vorce says success.

His house, worth half a million dollars, with a home theater and a fully

equipped gym.

His condo in Florida and his car, a $260 ,000

Aston Martin.

Michael Vorce was a guy who got around town a lot. He was not a low -profile

person. He had kind of an entourage, you know, which is really unusual in a town

like Grand Rapids. And he would go to nightclubs, and he'd be sitting in the

area with his expensive bottle.

He was going to bars and tipping $1 ,000.

He was buying expensive clothes up to, you know, $20 ,000 at one visit. He

to go to Chicago, buy clothes in Chicago, you know, $3 ,000, $4 ,000 at

store, no problem.

But most of all, Michael Vorce loves boats.

This is Mike Bork, and he's running Lake Michigan.

Fellow boating enthusiast Mark Blondin meets Bors through an event Blondin runs

for offshore boaters called the Smoke on the Water Poker Run.

He was getting to be known as this guy in town who had a bit of money and was

flashing it around a bit, and he was a young guy, good -looking guy, very

charismatic. Everybody he talked with loved Mike.

In this event, Vorce is running a performance boat he bought from local

builder Doug Gilhode.

He liked high -performance boats.

He had a couple different boats, as far as I knew, with big engines and fast,

loud, a lot of fun.

Looking to expand his enterprise, Vorce leases the Wharf Marina in Grand Haven

and hires Mark Blondin to manage it.

When Mike asked me to get involved, I just figured this guy's got a lot of

money, he's got a lot of vision, he's going to throw a lot of money at it in

order to get it where he wants it to be. It seemed he had more than enough money

to lose.

And he never misses a chance to make a big splash.

It was his dad's birthday, and Mike had told me that he was going to show up at

the marina to deliver a Corvette to his dad for his birthday. I was there when

he delivered this Corvette to his dad with a bow in the parking lot.

And where does Vorce say his money is coming from?

I don't think any of us really asked. We knew he had been involved in a

voiceover Internet business, and he was a golden child.

Eventually, Michael Vorce and all his money draw the kind of attention he

looking for.

From IRS criminal investigator Devin Beckett.

It was late 2006. I received some information from a confidential

about a...

young man that wasn't filing tax returns yet. He had a lot of assets.

Michael Boris is not even 30 years old. He did not graduate from college.

And yet, in 2006, he spends more than $100 ,000 on clothes,

$250 ,000 on cars, another $300 ,000 on home

furnishings, and $600 ,000 on real estate.

It doesn't add up.

When I first got this information and I saw his date of birth, like, he's only a

couple years older than me. There's no way.

And I was like, what is this guy doing? I need to look into him. How is he

making all this money? How is he buying all this stuff and not filing tax

returns?

Up next on American Greed, the answer to the question, how does Michael Boris

get all that money?

Our sources said, yes, Michael Boris is the man behind this huge bank loss at

Macatawa Bank.

In Grand Rapids, Michael Vorce hides a secret.

He's living the high life, appearing to have earned a small fortune from an

international communications company and his boat business.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is that Michael Vorce is stealing money from local banks.

His boat con begins in 2002.

after he learns a valuable lesson about credit scores.

Early on in his business career, he ruined his personal credit by getting a

and defaulting on it. And so what he did is he set up a new credit history for

himself by getting what's called an EIN, a tax ID number from IRS.

The tax number is assigned to West Michigan Yachts, the business Boris has

up through which he buys and sells boats.

With a clean slate, now he can get a business loan with his personal record

of sight.

So if a bank made an inquiry to a credit reporting agency, they would not run

into Michael Vorce's crummy personal credit history. They would just see his

business credit history, which was quite good.

Later, Vorce stumbles onto another piece of information that becomes critical to

his scare, and he tries to buy a boat in Tennessee.

He learns that Tennessee does not title boats.

So if you send a bill of sale to the Tennessee authorities, they will issue

a letter like this that explains to anybody that wants to know that

doesn't have titles.

And that's it, the key to a multimillion -dollar con.

Because of that minor regulatory policy, Boris figures out that he can get a

legal title for a boat that does not exist.

All someone has to do is create a phony bill of sale like this one from J .R.

Motorsports. It is for a fake boat from a fake company at a fake address.

Next, create a letter from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency that states

that it can be used as proof of ownership of a boat.

It's just what Vorst needs.

With his phony paperwork in hand, he can go to a branch office of the Secretary

of State and apply for the Michigan Certificate of Title.

The Michigan Secretary of State knows that Tennessee doesn't have titles. They

would issue a real Certificate of Title for this phony boat.

So now Dorf has a real title for the boat that he wants to get a loan

on from some victim bank.

In May 2002, it is time to test out the boat car.

His first victim?

Irwin Union Bank.

He turns in the paperwork, packed with lies, and before long, presto, a check

for a loan to buy a boat that does not exist.

Eventually, he gets 30 loans from Irwin Union for a total of $8 .6 million.

His next victim is LaSalle Bank.

In three years, he steals $2 .2 million.

He has the documents he needs.

But he also has a way with the bankers.

Michael Vorce was really successful for the time that he was doing all this

because he had an air of confidence, a swagger to him, and he showed

like he was a player.

Young, professional, intelligent, very articulate, personable, somebody you

would like, somebody you would trust to do business transactions with. The best

con men are the most convincing, and that was Michael Vorce.

In 2004, Voris takes his con to Makatawa Bank of Holland, Michigan.

Over two years, he goes back again and again, spending the money as fast as it

comes in.

On the day he gets a check from Makatawa Bank for $225 ,000, he spends $20

,000 on clothes.

And if money gets tight, it's off to another bank.

Sometimes he would use a real boat.

three or four times. He would go to one bank, get financing for that boat, and

then he would create a title showing that it was free and clear and go to

another bank and get financing for that boat.

Bors knows that if the bank officers did any checking at all, it would be easy

to catch his con.

One of the things he told us was how he could have been caught if anybody had

checked. The bank always required him to sign a waiver allowing them to go to

the IRS and get his file.

IRS returns.

The tax records he gave to the banks were not filed.

And had the banks checked, they would have realized that they hadn't been

And that, of course, would have been a big red flag.

They just didn't do it.

Over time, he learns that the more paperwork he submits, the fewer

asked. And so his printer works overtime.

He makes up appraisals for boats said to be done by a company called Tucker

Surveys.

Tucker Surveys was completely made up. There was no Tucker Surveys. There's no

Jeff Tucker.

It's actually Michael Vorce.

He created everything on that. He created addresses. He set up a voicemail

system. So if they called Jeff Tucker, it would get sent to him, and then he

would, you know, call them back.

Or he would say, Jeff Tucker was in the Bahamas for two months and couldn't get

back to them. He backstopped everything he did.

By 2006, Vorce is on the Lake Michigan Credit Union.

In just seven months, he gets $4 .7 million for loans against 16 boats.

But 13 don't exist, so Vorce creates a distraction.

A couple of anecdotes he told me is that people didn't really care that much.

They were happier to have him take them to a nice launch.

But there is one loan officer from Makatawa Bank who makes Vorce jump

some hoops.

He insists on seeing the boats that Vorce says are in Florida.

In March 2006, Michael Vorce went down to Florida and started checking out a

number of marinas all the way from Key West, West Palm Beach, and found boats

that matched the boats that Makatawa had on inventory, at least look very

similar. He tells the marinas he's a selling agent bringing down a buyer

interested in some of the boats.

He even goes on board the boats to make sure that there are no identifying

photos that can blow the story he will later tell the banks, that he's the

rightful owner.

When the loan officer came down, Michael Vorce had been in these marinas a

number of times to the point where some of them knew him by first name.

So he's got it all laid out, he's got it planned out, and the loan officer went

with it.

With the loan officer duped, Michael Vorce continues to do business with

Makatawa Bank.

He gets 26 loans from the bank for a stunning $9 .2 million.

He knows he needs to keep the payments current.

When he doesn't have the money to pay one loan, he just gets another.

This was pretty much a Ponzi scheme that we see over and over again.

In order to keep the fraudulent scheme going, Vorst can't let any of his loans

default, so he has to make his monthly payments.

Well, the more loans he gets, the more monthly payments he has to pay every

month, which means he has to get bigger and bigger loans so everybody stays

happy.

By 2006, Vorst owes multiple banks millions and millions of dollars.

But he has a plan, a way to pay the banks back.

Up next, investing in gold.

They promised investors significant return on their investment. For example,

they paid $80 ,000, they could expect maybe a million within 30 days.

In 2006,

Michael Voris has been working at Kahn for four years.

creating fake documents to get loans from local banks.

Now he owes millions and millions of dollars.

The bills are mounting. He needs a new source of money.

And now he has one, what he later calls his exit strategy.

His partner in his new venture is a high school classmate, Ryan Steensma, who is

running a company called Redline 22.

Redline 22 is a company that was very much under the radar of most people in

Grand Rapids that was doing business in the Middle East, in Africa, and all

these hot spots.

Steensma is a former Marine and Sheriff's deputy.

His company provides security to American businessmen traveling to danger

It is said to be a small version of Blackwater, the infamous paramilitary

company that gained notoriety in Iraq.

But Redline 22's main interest is not in Iraq, but in Africa, where Michael

Vorce and Ryan Steensma see gold in their future.

There was a new plan in place with this business to engage in some gold

operations, wherein Redline 22 would provide protection for shipments of gold

from Africa to refineries in Brussels.

For Boris and Steensma, there is serious money to be made from these gold mines.

And they begin looking for investors, telling a story they actually believe.

We are hauling gold ore from Africa to Belgium, where the gold ore has turned

into gold.

And we can make a huge profit doing that because we just buy the ore at a low

price. After it's turned into gold, it's obviously very valuable.

They promised investors a significant return on their investment.

For example, if they paid $80 ,000, they could expect, you know, maybe a million

within 30 days.

And the amounts varied, but it was significant returns.

In short order, they raised $1 million from friends who buy the stories.

But it turns out to be entirely untrue.

By late 2006, they realized there were problems. They weren't able to get any

gold contracts, even though they represented that they were.

And they weren't able to get any money, and the scheme fell apart.

But Vorse and Steensma keep that information to themselves.

They knew the gig was up.

But they continue to provide the investors with what we call lulling

letting them think the money's coming in, when in fact there was no money

in. Lulling letters like this one.

Said to be from a LaSalle bank executive, it offers proof that $147

on the way.

But using a classic Nigerian fraud tactic, it says the money has been held

a ministry because a fee needs to be paid.

And the million dollars that friends invested, that's gone.

It went to prior investors, pay them off, keep them at bay, let them know,

here's some of the money.

We're continuing to do our gold operations.

It also went a significant amount to pay for personal expenses, extravagant

lifestyle.

As the African scheme falls apart, The pressure on Michael Vorce mounts.

He continues churning out fake documents and getting bogus titles to turn into

banks.

But he's falling behind.

His bills are mounting.

And over at the marina, Vorce's manager begins to notice that something is going

on. One day we had almost $60 ,000 in the account, and my secretary comes to

the following day and says, we got, like, two.

Later in that day, I found out that basically most of the money that

disappeared, Mike had taken out of the account for whatever reason without

sharing it with me.

At Sabre Marine, Doug Geelhoed is still owed money for a boat he sold to Vorce.

Basically, we received some of the funds for it, and it was supposed to be an

ongoing payment, and then he stopped making payments.

He assured us that he was good for it, and he kind of strung us along for a

while. By March 2007, Michael Vorth has taken out 53 loans.

He has made off with millions of dollars.

And now he cannot possibly make the payments.

He writes to American Greed by email, The fraud was beginning to consume me.

It needed to end, regardless of the consequences.

Up next, five years, $28 million.

And many believe Boris is convincing, saying he's ready to give up.

He came totally clean to me in a matter of probably two hours.

March 2007.

Macatawa Bank in Holland, Michigan, makes a surprising announcement.

It claims it is a victim of an intentional effort to defraud the bank.

One unnamed customer has illegally obtained commercial loans amounting to

least $5 .2 million.

They didn't disclose who that was, but our sources and the people that we were

working with to kind of research the whole thing said yes.

Michael Vorce is the man behind the huge bank loss at Macatawa Bank.

Suddenly, Michael Vorce is front -page news.

The rich party boy is accused of being a con man, one who tells lies to steal

banks' money.

But the news about the fraud doesn't come from the banks.

It comes from Michael Vorce.

Just a few weeks before Macatawa makes its announcement, Vorce knows he can't

continue his con.

His hope of making money from gold in Africa is gone.

He goes to see bankruptcy attorney Robert Wardrop.

He started out by explaining his issues with the bank that was causing him the

trouble at that time, but it became pretty clear that there was more to it.

So I said something like, Michael, tell me the whole story.

And it sort of just flowed out. He came totally clean to me in a matter of two

hours. Boris lays out the scheme entirely.

He has been defrauding banks for five years.

He owes millions.

He wants out.

We then called up all the banks and had a meeting, and all the banks came.

Michael stayed downstairs. I went up to them and basically handed each bank a

status report on their loans.

You have seven loans, two boats.

You have five loans, one boat.

And the bankers were astounded.

What else could they do?

They had to go back to report to their higher -ups that... We have five bad

loans. We have a loss of X thousand dollars or X million dollars.

And it looks like there's not much to get.

Immediately, the banks go after all they can get their hands on.

They start at Bourse's boat storage facility.

There, the man who claimed ownership of more than 50 yachts produces only seven

boats. The most valuable, an aluminum...

55 -foot powerboat worth $1 .5 million.

Doesn't even belong to him.

Belongs to a man who once considered Vorce a friend.

He used this boat and had possession of it. He also went to one of the banks in

West Michigan and represented it as his own boat, free and clear.

And then he altered some documents and even claimed it was a 2003.

which increased the value, and he provided that to the bank and then got a

on that boat.

Among the boats the banks repossess is one Doug Gilhode sold to Boris.

Boris still owes him $200 ,000, but the banks are in line before Gilhode, and he

is never paid.

I think there definitely was a sense of betrayal.

You know, this was a person that went out and...

rubbed shoulders with you and you enjoyed a common passion of high

boating, and then to find out that he wasn't who he pretended to be and that

was someone that would take advantage of you, basically a con man.

The banks take the boats and then move on to Vorce's house.

In May, his possessions are put on the auction block, available online at

RepoCast .com.

And it leads the news on Wood TV.

The Vore slot also includes a bunch of flat screens, an electronic reclining

sofa, a multi -cade arcade game complete with Space Invader and Ms. Pac -Man.

The banks and the auction company played it up. Come get Michael Vore's stuff.

And people overpaid for a flat screen TV just to say it was Michael Vore's flat

screen TV.

In all, the auction brings in only $224 ,000.

And still, the banks are owed $16 million.

The question in town is, why were the bank loan officers played so easily by

Michael Gore?

Over at the Grand Rapids Press, with just a few phone calls, Chris Knapp

out that Vorce's boats don't exist.

We filed a freedom of information request with the Michigan Secretary of

for all the titles.

that were in Michael Vorce's name and his company.

The titles all contain a hull identification number that should

one specific boat.

If you looked really closely at most of these hull identification numbers, he

may have said it was a Sea Ray boat, but the hull identification number, very

quickly, if you knew anything about how these worked, it wouldn't indicate that

that was a Sea Ray.

And we actually called the manufacturer just to confirm, and they confirmed

that... They weren't, in fact, boats that they had ever manufactured or had

a serial number on. The title for a boat that Michael was applying for, and it

said it was manufactured in 2003. Well, I called the manufacturer, and they

said, no, we didn't make any boats that year.

By spring 2007, although he gets to keep the house for now, Michael Boris has

been stripped of almost everything he owns.

He issues an apology.

To the banks, he admits, I betrayed their trust and confidence as a

And to his family, he says, I am deeply sorry for the disappointment and

embarrassment I have caused.

It was bizarre because it's so rare that you admit guilt before you've really

had your day in court.

It's a strange thing to somehow feel a little bit of respect for Michael

as a result of that. It's so unusual that you kind of thought, huh, what a

Michigan kind of thing to do.

His con brought Forrest millions of dollars. A moment in the big time.

But now he knows he is going to prison, and he does what he can to lighten his

sentence with a tell -all to the feds.

He details not only his own fraud scheme, but also the lies told by him

partner Ryan Steensma in the gold mining scheme.

He decided he could help himself by tattling on Steensma.

So for many months he was coming to our office, talking to the FBI, the IRS.

saying that he was there to help, and he did help on the yacht fraud and on the

gold ore fraud.

By August 2008, investigators are confirming the information Vorst tells

Formal charges are expected shortly.

In August 2008, we thought we were dealing with somebody that was sorry for

they'd done, who'd realized that he'd gotten caught, and was just going to try

and get the best.

resolution that he could get.

But he still had one more card to play.

Up next, Michael Voris is not all that sorry after all. I got a call from

somebody and said, your boy's done it again.

See what Michael Voris and Ryan Steensbus say in their own words at

AmericanGreed .CNBC .com. Follow us on Twitter at American Greed TV and like us

at Facebook .com American Greed CNBC. We'll be right back.

By the summer of 2008, Michael Boris is well known in town as the shamed

fraudster who ripped off banks and friends.

And yet, while investigators unravel his scheme, he is still a free man, telling

people he's looking for work.

Michael was trying to get by.

He didn't want to leave town.

He tried a series of jobs, but every time he was so well known that he

get a job, you know.

Why is Michael Boris working for you, or why would you have that criminal

working for you?

By all appearances, the rich party boy persona is a thing of the past.

Today, Boris is seen as full of regret, truly sorry for his crimes, completely

cooperative. We went through each transaction, each loan for the multiple

that he defrauded.

And he told us how he did it. He told us what was fraudulent about each of the

statements, each of the documents, the tax returns.

But just as he played the banks, Michael Boris is playing the feds.

After he concludes his meetings with the FBI, Boris is back to his old boat scam

tricks.

For 10 months, he runs a new scheme, one that earns him $3 .5 million.

And this time, he has a partner, James Jett, a boating buddy and a home builder

in Grand Rapids who is willing to help Vorce, who now needs to make a few

adjustments to his car.

He understood that his name was basically radioactive. He couldn't get

loans from anybody.

Vorce needs a new identity, and he and Jett comb the real estate records in

search of someone with good credit.

When they found people that were selling homes that didn't have mortgages on

them, they concluded that that was somebody that had a lot of money and

get a big loan with not any trouble.

An Internet search next turns up the person's Social Security number and date

birth. That allows them to get a bank account in the person's name, and that

allows them to start applying for a loan online in that person's name where they

never meet a bank officer.

They never run into the actual person whose identity they're using.

In June, Vorce finds a perfect candidate, an attorney in Milwaukee.

He sends off a loan application in that attorney's name to Bank of the West.

This time, the paperwork ends up in the hands of someone who actually knows a

thing or two about boats.

Dave Patnoe, at the time, is working with Essex Credit Corporation, the

processor for the bank.

I've been a boater my whole life.

I've always had a passion for boats. I was fortunate enough 12 years ago to get

into the boating industry, and currently today I do recreational finance, which

includes marine loans.

The application he receives is for a 48 -foot Sea Ray.

This is a lot of boat. That's a half -million -dollar boat used, upwards to

$800 ,000 to a million dollars new. So it's not just anyone can go ahead and

purchase that kind of boat.

The person applying for the loan in 2008, a successful Milwaukee attorney,

the profile of a Sea Ray buyer.

These boats are bought by people that are self -made, people that have worked

very hard and are self -employed, also corporate executives.

But the applicant for this loan is not who he says he is.

It is Michael Bortz. And he has already stolen close to $400 ,000 from Bank of

the West.

Back in January, using a stolen identity, Boris and Jet got a loan and

few payments.

And then payments stopped.

And then when we went and backtracked to try and contact the buyer to see where

the payments were, all the phones were disconnected, sent mail, mail was

returned undeliverable.

Pat Node checks every document that comes in. He calls the CPA who is listed

the applicant's tax preparer.

Surprisingly, when I asked the CPA whether it was a client of his, he said,

actually know the gentleman. He's a friend of mine for 20 years, but no,

not my client.

That note's red flag is raised higher.

Next, the Hull survey, based on an appraisal done by a surveyor just a few

earlier. The surveyor said, that's impossible.

He said, that boat's in Chicago.

He goes, I was in Jacksonville three days ago when you say that I did such

survey, surveying a sailboat.

The bank contacts the FBI.

Special Agent Wayne Joukowsky finds that the online application was sent from a

Barnes & Noble store.

It is impossible to identify the sender. The phone number listed on the

application goes to a prepaid cell.

They did a very good job of covering their tracks, which made my job much

frustrating to determine who they were.

The only way to find out who this loan applicant really is is to meet him face

-to -face, and there is one chance to do that.

When the applicant picks up the loan documents he must sign before he can get

the money.

That is when we set up the sting, and I was told to let the

buyer know that we're going to be sending the loan documents out.

The adrenaline was flowing, and we really were looking forward to catching

person.

Chicago, August 26, 2008.

This is the day Michael Vorce is outplayed.

The loan documents arrive at the address on the loan application and are picked

up by a courier and taken to Arrow Messenger.

Agent Joukowsky has been trading the package all day and is now waiting

Close to midnight, Joukowsky watches a BMW pull up to the office.

There are two men in the vehicle.

One gets out and picks up the package from Bank of the West.

The FBI makes its move.

We ordered them to get out of the vehicle, told them that we were

them, at which point they told us that they hadn't done anything wrong and

didn't know why we were stopping them, that they were there to pick up the

package on behalf of someone else.

The two men turn over their identification.

They are James Jett and Michael Vorce.

Joukowsky notices a cell phone and quickly calls the number on the loan

application.

And with a ring, the connection is made between the two men and the fraud.

Michael Vorce and James Jett are arrested.

The next day, news of Vorce's latest scam makes it to Grand Rapids.

I was surprised.

I was upset.

But Michael Vorce is a con man.

You never trust a con man.

The day after, I got a call from somebody and said, your boy's done it

It was pretty crushing to me, mostly because we'd worked so hard to try to

Michael in the best position possible for the indictment when it came and the

sentencing and the like, and that just blew it out of the water.

There was no risk from where we sat to talking to him because even if we

him immediately, he would have been out and about because he wouldn't have been

locked up just for defrauding banks.

But, yes, I have to admit, we did trust him.

We did assume he wasn't going around committing more frauds, and we were

about that.

We got burned, too.

Up next, now it's time for Michael Vorst to burn.

After he sat there talking to us and then still committing the fraud, it's

we're not going to take anything easy.

In September 2008, Michael Vorce is sitting in a jail cell in Milwaukee.

His years of defrauding banks are over.

It's time for good.

But even here, he sees a chance to change his future.

Meet Calvin Purtle, a 29 -year -old man charged with the brutal murder of a 21

-year -old woman.

He is Michael Vorce's cellmate.

Vorce would be a charismatic person, easy to like, intelligent.

And his cellmates, I think, gravitated towards him because he is smart.

And so this murder defendant got to talking to Vorce about just general

and then a trust relationship built up between the two of them. And the guy

Vorce what he had done to get charged with murder.

Purtle gives Vorce the details of the murder he committed.

Vorce listens carefully.

and then tells authorities exactly what he has learned.

Nearly four months later, when Boris testifies in the murder trial, he is

to be instrumental in Pirtle's conviction.

Later, he returns to Michigan to face the investigators he lied to, who have

little patience for Michael Boris.

He sat there for four plus months, hours at a time, talking to us, and then...

Still committing the fraud, it's like, we're not going to take anything easy.

We're going to do tax charges, we're going to do money laundering charges,

going to do all the charges that we set out to begin with.

And that's exactly what we did.

It definitely was a different dynamic. I mean, obviously he had shown his

stripes. We were not willing to deal with them anymore. And just said, let's

to the judge now. It's time to face the music.

In June 2009... Boris pleads guilty to bank fraud, money laundering, and tax

evasion. In October, he learns his fate.

Boris is headed to federal prison today for 12 years on convictions of fraud,

money laundering, and tax evasion.

Boris got time off his sentence for testifying against the murderer in

Milwaukee.

Later, he knocks the 12 -year sentence down to 10 for ratting on his partner in

the African gold scam, Ryan Steensma.

He pleads guilty to money laundering and is sentenced to five years.

James Jett, Vorce's partner in the Wisconsin scam, pleads guilty to

to commit wire fraud and is sentenced to five and a half years.

As for the banks, they are still owed $20 million by Michael Vorce.

But that enormous restitution bill may well disappear.

Remember Voex?

The promising Internet communications company from Vorse's past?

Today, his stock might turn out to be worth very close to $20 million.

Ironically, if Michael Vorse had just stuck with his promising start in life,

today that money might have been his.

But Vorse made another choice and pulled a colossal con on Grand Rapids.

Today, his impact, for better and for worse, is tremendous.

Michael Vorst changed the way banking works here in Grand Rapids. Michael had

figured out a way to scam them based on trust and based on their lack of due

diligence. The banks are a lot more aware of what they do. They do the kind

due diligence they could have been doing all along.

I think the impact he had was there's less handshake trust among people

are considered members of our community.

If they want a loan, they're going to have to go through the ringer just like

everybody else, even if they're a longstanding member of the community.

American Greed contacted the banks in this story. All either declined comment

did not return our calls.

Boris is now at Milan Federal Prison outside of Detroit.

He agreed to be interviewed for this program, but prison authorities refused

allow him to participate, citing security concerns.

Instead, he sends American Greed an email saying that while he had succumbed

the temptations of wealth and power, he plans to get up from this fall in a

manner that might inspire others who may fall or have fallen to rise and reclaim

a life of value and purpose.

Boer says he hopes to return to Grand Rapids when he is released.

He wants to rebuild his life there, but that will not be easy. The issue will be

trust. When Michael gets out, who will trust Michael Bors?