CLARKSTON, Mich.—Michael LaJoice, the former CU CFO who allegedly stole more than $20 million from Clarkston Brandon Community CU, waived a key hearing Tuesday, moving his case to trial court.
The Detroit Free Press reported that LaJoice waived a hearing that would have required prosecutors to show some evidence against him.
Earlier this year LaJoice was found competent to stand trial by a psychologist with the state of Michigan’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry.
As CUToday.info reported here, LaJoice, 36, allegedly walked into the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and claimed to have embezzled $20 million over a 12-year period from the Fenton, Mich.-based credit union. He faces 13 counts of embezzling more than $100,000 and one count of embezzling from a financial institution.
LaJoice, who was paid approximately $60,000, was the developer of a downtown project called Riverview for which he had paid $2.1 million to gain control of seven properties, was the owner of the Chasse Ballroom & Latin Dance Studio, and owned a home valued at $4 million.
Authorities said LaJoice stole the funds in $100,000 increments that were then put into personal accounts. Investigators said more than $800,000 in cash has been recovered from seven accounts and work continues to uncover any other funds.
The credit union has since been placed in conservatorship.
Meanwhile, the Detroit News also reported that property purchased by LaJoice has been put up for sale as part of an effort to recover funds.
“This isn’t a ‘whodunit’ — my client has accepted responsibility and wants to do everything he can to have funds returned to the credit union,” Michael Manley, LaJoice’s attorney, told The Detroit News.
Investigators have tracked the withdrawal of about $2.5 million in credit union funds since June that correspond with LaJoice’s purchases of a boarded-up store and laundromat, four houses and a commercial building in Fenton, Mich. where he planned a six-story $31-million mixed-use project, the Detroit News reported.
Manley told the Detroit said liens are on all of LaJoice’s properties, including a customized home on which he is believed to have spent $3 million in enhancements and furnishings.
“We have already lined up prospective cash buyers for most of them.”
More than $800,000 in LaJoice savings accounts have been frozen in seven banks.