BAY CITY, MI — A Flint man has been sent to federal prison for defrauding Michigan banks and credit unions of six figures, money which he used to buy more than a dozen vehicles.
U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington on Wednesday, June 29, sentenced 41-year-old Eddie E. Hendrickson to 37 months in prison. Once he serves his term, Hendrickson is to be on supervised release for an additional three years.
The amount of restitution Hendrickson owes his victims is yet to be determined, with a hearing to that end slated for July 19.
Hendrickson in March pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud, a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
The plea agreement states that between December 2019 and February 2020 Hendrickson and another unnamed person devised a scheme to defraud numerous banks and credit unions. To do this, Hendrickson acquired the Social Security number of a man who had a similar name as his own.
Hendrickson then used this pilfered Social Security number to obtain loans which he then used to finance the purchase of off-road vehicles, motorcycles, and trucks.
In all, Hendrickson fraudulently acquired $201,080.02 in loans from financial institutions in Saginaw, Bay, Livingston, Wayne, and Jackson counties. He then used this money to buy 15 vehicles.
Hendrickson and his cohort kept the vehicles, sold them, gave them away, or otherwise disposed of them, the plea agreement states.
In a sentencing memorandum, defense attorney Haralambos D. Mihas wrote Hendrickson was in the throes of addiction to crack cocaine and alcohol in the winter of 2019.
“It was at this point that ‘Person A convinces Eddie to join a scheme to defraud banks and lending institutions so they could buy off-road vehicles, motorcycles and cars,” Mihas wrote. “For his part, Eddie received pennies on the dollars. As much as he was victimizing the lending institutions, he was also a victim. Person A used Eddie to take all the risk while he took all the money and/or the vehicles. The little amounts of money he was given, Eddie spent to fuel his addictions.”
A federal complaint was sworn against Hendrickson on Aug. 13, 2021. The complaint lists 10 dates of Hendrickson’s alleged crimes, the first being Dec. 23, 2019.
On that day, Hendrickson used the stolen Social Security number and driver’s license to apply for an auto loan at Bay Cycle Sales in Bangor Township. The loan was granted for two Honda motorcycles, totaling $21,000.36 in loss.
Hendrickson repeated this tactic nine more times.
On March 20, a Genesee County Sheriff’s lieutenant contacted the person whose Social Security number Hendrickson was allegedly using. This person has a name similar to Hendrickson’s but told the lieutenant he had never allowed anyone else to use his identity or Social Security number, the Secret Service agent wrote.
Having been arrested on unrelated charges, Hendrickson on April 7, 2020, was interviewed by the Genesee County Sheriff’s lieutenant and a Secret Service special agent.
“Hendrickson admitted to participating in a scheme to obtain vehicles fraudulently,” the agent wrote. “He admitted to picking the vehicles up from the dealerships and bringing them back to his home.”
In July 2020, the two Dodge Chargers bought by Hendrickson in January were tracked to a Flint address. A man at this location told authorities he was storing them for Hendrickson, the agent wrote.
The lending institutions further told authorities no payments had been made on any of the loans, resulting in a total loss on each loan.
Read more:
Flint man pleads to defrauding banks of $201K to buy 15 vehicles
Flint man used stolen Social Security number to obtain $201K and buy 15 vehicles, feds allege
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