For eight years, Michael LaJoice lived the lifestyle of the rich and famous supported by the $18 million he stole from his own credit union. He drove a $95,000 Cadillac Escalade, flew in a private jet and lived in a 5,800-square-foot multimillion-dollar custom-built home that included a nine-seat-movie theater.

LaJoice, 38, of Tyrone Township, Mich., will have a lot of time to think about how his greed ruined his life, devastated his wife, their three young children and merged the $68.5 million Clarkston Brandon Community Credit Union out of existence, including some of its jobs.

U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin A. Drain in Detroit sentenced the former CBCCU CFO Thursday to 11 years in federal prison. LaJoice also was ordered to pay restitution of $18.6 million.

He pleaded guilty to bank fraud in November.

LaJoice began stealing from the Clarkston, Mich.-based credit union in 2007 and continued siphoning funds through 2015, according to court records. Finally, on January 5, 2016 state regulators finally caught up to him and confronted the former CFO about discrepancies in the books. The next morning, LaJoice shocked the community when he walked into the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and confessed his crime to stunned police investigators.

Just one week after the fraud surfaced, CBCCU was conserved and later declared insolvent, which necessitated the credit union’s consolidation with the $3.4 billion Michigan State University Credit Union in East Lansing. Because of the merger, some CBCCU’s 15 full-time and seven part-time employees were not retained and other employees had their compensation and benefits altered, according to court documents.

“LaJoice’s offense was an exceptionally serious one. The scope of LaJoice’s theft is shocking, and reflects a level of greed that is difficult to fathom,” prosecutors wrote in a legal brief recommending an 11-year sentence. “This crime also amounted to a major abuse of the trust his employer and his co-workers placed in him. This crime was not the result of a momentary lack of judgment. Indeed, it persisted for years, and was the product of premeditation, calculation, and an utter indifference to the consequences of the crime to others.”

LaJoice’s lawyer, Michael P. Manley of Flint, acknowledged his client’s case was shocking and staggering in its scope, but he argued for a much lighter sentence of five years because LaJoice was “incredibly cooperative,” paid “extraordinary restitution” and demonstrated “remarkable acceptances of responsibility.”

“Since turning himself in, LaJoice has proactively tried to right his wrong,” Manley wrote in his legal brief. “He has worked with authorities and lawyers at all levels of government --- local, state, and federal--- to resolve both civil and criminal matters. He has rid himself of all vestiges of his criminal endeavor by instructing his lawyers to settle and resolve all claims to ensure (1) the credit union receive as much restitution as quickly as possible and (2) the City of Fenton would not be harmed by the abrupt end to a major capital construction project.

Although Manley said LaJoice reached a civil settlement with MSUFCU and agreed to pay full restitution, “with millions already paid,” Manley did not specify a number in his legal brief.

However, while prosecutors acknowledged some of those funds have been recovered from LaJoice in uncontested ancillary proceedings, a substantial amount of the stolen money will likely never be recovered. Likewise, prosecutors did not specify how much of the stolen money has been recovered.

LaJoice founded LaJoice Properties LLC in April 2015. That company publicly announced plans in October 2015 to build a retail and residential project that reportedly was the biggest development initiative in the history of Fenton, Mich., located about 60 miles northwest of Detroit. With the stolen credit union funds, LaJoice purchased vacant commercial properties and other business holdings. He also was the owner of the Chassé Ballroom and Latin Dance Studio in Fenton since June 2007.

LaJoice stole more than $16.1 million from Clarkston Brandon Community by conducting ACH withdrawals from the credit union to his personal accounts held at PayPal, Capital One Bank, TD Ameritrade and American Express. He set up ACH withdrawals to debit funds from the credit union’s investment general ledger, which he was responsible for balancing. When the electronic transfer debited the credit union’s general ledger investment account, the funds were deposited in his personal accounts.

After the funds were deposited, LaJoice cleared the credit union’s ledger to delete the corresponding transaction and wire transferred the funds from his personal accounts to other accounts, including his business account at Comerica Bank.

He also stole more than $2.5 million by issuing cashier’s checks from various credit union accounts without authorization. These checks were deposited in LaJoice’s bank accounts at Capital One Bank, Comerica Bank, Scottrade and the $2.2 billion Genisys Credit Union in Auburn Hills, Mich. The checks, typically deposited via ATMs, were made payable to the respective institutions and in the names of fake individuals, according to court documents.

He managed to conceal his fraud by creating fictitious investments in certificates of deposits and bonds at the $2.7 billion Total Bank in Miami. These fictitious investments were provided to auditors and state examiners to show that the credit union’s books were balanced and to avoid detection of the missing funds.

Instant Insights /

Former Credit Union CFO Slammed With 11-year Sentence

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