Who amongst us hasn’t faked our own kidnapping by a Mexican cartel after the government found out our car dealership defrauded buyers for over $3.9 million? No one? Well, I guess it’s just this guy, then: George P. Janssen, Jr. Oh, and he’s a championship poker player too, just for kicks. This may sound stranger than fiction or like something out of the movie “Fargo” but it really happened in the Florida of the midwest; Michigan.
The case against the 42-year-old started in August of 2023 when the state audited his business, Bay Auto Brokers, after getting a complaint of a fraudulent vehicle loan, according to MLive. The state ended up finding some big discrepancies between sales and inventory at the dealership. Apparently, Janssen used the same fictitious vehicles in multiple loan applications. He tried to explain this away to state investigators by saying he had “floated a loan,” meaning he got more than one loan on a vehicle without paying off the first one. In late October of that same year, Michigan revoked his license to sell vehicles for five years.
Millions of dollars in fraud
It only got worse from there, as M Live explains:
The following week, the chief operating officer of Copoco Community Credit Union, 4265 E. Wilder Road in Bangor Township, contacted authorities to report a loss of $1,343,285 from Janssen’s business’ account. The COO told investigators Janssen had deposited checks in that amount, only for them to be returned due to insufficient funds, the affidavit states. Meanwhile, Copoco issued the $1.3 million in checks to Janssen, which he deposited into Bay Auto Brokers’ business account at Independent Bank, the affidavit states.
Investigators determined the Copoco account had been started by a “generous donor” who invested $700,000 to serve as a “floor plan” for the business. Janssen had full access to this account, would remove money to buy inventory for his business, then return the funds, the affidavit states.
Then everything really got nuts when Janssen disappeared on November 13, 2023. He remained missing for a little over a month, flagging down a Michigan motorist on December 16 while his hands were zip-tied and he was bleeding from facial injuries, according to MLive. He claims he was being held hostage in an Ohio basement.
Don’t lie about being kidnapped
Here’s the wild story he made up:
Janssen told family and a friend he had been extorted by a Mexican cartel since October 2021, when a masked gunman approached him as he left a Detroit poker tournament. The cartel provided Janssen with a phone through which they would text him specifics of how to get them money.
Since then, Janssen claimed to have given the criminal organization about $2 million, leaving $25,000 in boxes at various locations, the affidavit states.
While he was “missing,” cops were notified of several loans going unpaid to the dealership. They were taken by several folks who were all close associates of Janssen, acting at his direction. Collectively, they obtained over $3.93 million from various banks and credit unions. It really sounds like an old mafia-style bust-out. Wild.
Police spoke to Janssen’s son, who worked at the dealer. He said he would move money from one account to the other with all of the car information provided by his father. He wrongly assumed all of these cars were real even though he never saw them. He went on to describe his actions as “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” according to MLive. In total, the FBI found 20 financial institutions that were targets of Janssen’s fraud, with the total loan amount being $3,934,141. Of that, $1,946,549 remains owed.
At the end of February, Janssen appeared before a U.S. District Magistrate who informed him that he had been charged with one count of financial institution fraud. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Welp, it carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Ouch.
I just hope Steve Buscemi wasn’t involved.
