‘Long road’ for city police investigator in CCEA case
‘Long road’ for city police investigator in CCEA case
By GARRETT NEESE, DMG Writer
HOUGHTON — The local investigator in the case of a Copper Country Education Association secretary responsible for nearly $250,000 in fraudulent checks and loans said he was relieved to have it done with.
Susan Lynn Gregg, 36, formerly of Dodgeville, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Marquette Monday to a charge of making false statements on a loan application. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.
Gregg first came under suspicion when CCEA director Dennis Skoglund took the mail on Gregg’s day off, said Hancock Police Lt. Randy Mayra.
Had there been the usual pile of envelopes, Skoglund would have left it for Gregg the next day. But that day there was just one — a letter from Miners State Bank.
“He opened the letter, and it was a notice of a loan payment to the CCEA,” Mayra said. “It started from there.”
The resulting investigation, conducted by both Mayra and Special Agent Leslie Hahn of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, began in March 2005 and continued until the start of the year.
The duo reviewed financial transactions made at the branch during Gregg’s employment, which ran from the end of 1999 to 2005.
Gregg admitted to falsifying documents and forging signatures on a $29,000 loan application to National City Bank of Michigan/Illinois on behalf of the CCEA. In her plea agreement, she also admitted to applying for two other fraudulent loans, writing $178,000 in fraudulent checks on a CCEA account and another $40,000 on a MEA Region 18 account, and fraudulently applying for two credit cards for the CCEA.
Assistant U.S. attorneys Maarten Vermaat and Paul Lochner are prosecuting the case for the government.
Since there is no federal charge for forgery or embezzlement, the prosecutors pursued the charge for false statements on a bank loan, Mayra said.
Mayra estimated Gregg gained between $147,000 and $150,000 through her personal enrichment. Determining the exact amount is complicated by the frequency of transactions between different accounts, he said.
Gregg is expected to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in November 2006.
“From the beginning to the end, it’s been a long road with a lot of work to put a case together,” Mayra said. And he suspects the CCEA is also glad to see it end. “I’m sure they’re all relieved that it’s all over with,” he said.
Garrett Neese can be reached at gneese@mininggazette.com
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