MUSKEGON COUNTY, Mich. – A man on Michigan’s west side has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for his role in a fraud scheme.
According to authorities, Trent William Witteveen operated a Ponzi-like scheme involving his timber business that defrauded investors and customers. From 2018 to 2021, Witteveen routinely represented to investors that he secured timber harvesting rights from landowners and promised the investors a significant return if they provided the investment capital necessary to pay the landowner for such rights. Authorities said that in most instances, no contracts existed because Witteveen had already harvested the timber from the properties.
Witteveen also reportedly misrepresented the true value of the timber on a landowner’s property by purposely inflating the value to an amount higher than what he knew a sawmill would pay for it…