North Jersey Man Forged Mets Exec's Signature To Steal Investor Money

VERONA, N.J. – A Verona man and president of Choice Office Solutions, LLC, pleaded guilty Thursday to swindling investors out of more than $3.5 million by forging lease agreements with other companies.

Michael Conway pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a year-long scheme where he forged numerous lease agreements to defraud an individual investor and a financing firm. Choice Office Solutions is located in Fairfield.

Robert Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York announced the plea, and explained Conway’s “web of lies”:

According to court filings and facts presented at the plea hearing, between March 2014 to August 2015, Conway forged lease agreements with various companies in the business of leasing office equipment, and then used these fraudulent agreements to obtain financing from private investors. As part of the scheme, he induced an individual investor to become partners with him in the leasing business. Conway would then purportedly secure a lease from a company, present the signed lease and invoices to the individual investor, who would provide funds to purchase the office equipment to be leased. In this manner, Conway presented the individual investor with leases from approximately 58 companies, including law firms, universities, hospitals, and hotels, and the individual investor paid Conway approximately $3.5 million to purchase office equipment. In reality, most of the leasing agreements that Conway provided to the individual investor were fraudulent, and Conway pocketed most of the individual investor’s money.

One of the fraudulent leasing agreements was purportedly with the New York Mets. Relying on it, the individual investor wire transferred approximately $500,000 to Conway’s bank account to purchase office equipment. Conway then used the same forged lease agreement, and a forged authorization letter from the New York Mets purportedly signed by Jeffrey Wilpon, the team’s Chief Operating Officer, to obtain financing from DLLFSP. Based on these fraudulent documents, DLLFSP wire transferred a total of approximately $313,000 to Conway’s bank account. Through this and other forgeries, Conway defrauded DLLFSP of more than $1 million.

Conway has agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $3,555,493.40 and $1,203,516 to De Lage Landen Financial Solutions Partner (DLLFSP). He faces up to 20 years in prison.