Trio Who Scammed Michigan GOP Candidates Out Of $700,000 Are Heading To Trial 

A Macomb County judge moved the cases of a trio of campaign circulators to trial. The trio scammed Michigan GOP candidates out of $700,000. 

The campaign circulators were hired to collect signatures by 8 candidates to get on the August 2022 Michigan primary ballot. Instead, they supplied tens of thousands of fraudulent signatures. Thus, they effectively got all 8 candidates kicked off the August 2022 primary ballot.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced felony charges against three campaign circulators in June 2023.

As a result, a Macomb County judge has moved the cases of three campaign circulators to trial. They charged with collecting tens of thousands of fraudulent signatures.

The Sophomoric And Transparent Forgeries

The Michigan AG’s Office has accused Shawn Wilmoth, Jamie Wilmoth-Goodin, and Willie Reed of conducting a criminal enterprise to defraud eight Michigan GOP candidates. The candidates included five GOP gubernatorial candidates: Perry Johnson, James Craig, Donna Brandenburg, Michael Brown and Michael Markey. The other campaigns were for judicial candidates Tricia Dare, John Cahalan and John Michael Malone.

Wilmoth and Reed were also charged with theft from the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley. Kelley did qualify for the August 2022 primary ballot. However, he later lost to Tudor Dixon. Dixon went on to be soundly defeated in the November general election by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Kelley testified from a federal prison. He is currently serving time related to the Trump insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Nessel told the media last year:

“We believe that these defendants absolutely knew that they were submitting forgeries to these campaigns,” 

She also said that the fraudulent signatures were easy to spot. The defendants’ methods were “sophomoric and transparent” in their purposeful effort to commit fraud:

“The evidence very clearly demonstrates that defendants Wilmoth, Wilmoth-Goodin, and Reed were all aware of and directly responsible for the forged work-product provided to the campaigns which they knew would ultimately be filed with the Michigan Department of State Bureau of elections,” 

Prosecutors are charging Wilmoth, Wilmoth-Goodin and Reed with eight counts of false pretenses and eight counts of election law forgery. In addition to one count of conducting a criminal enterprise.

Prosecutors have also charged Wilmoth-Goodin with eight counts of use of a computer to commit a crime. The AG’s office has charged Wilmoth and Reed with nine counts of use of a computer to commit a crime. In addition to one count of larceny by conversion. 

Nessel said Wilmoth will also be charged as a third habitual offender.

She also stated the defendants conducted the criminal enterprise via three business entities. The defendants allegedly owned First Choice LLC, Mack Douglas LLC and Petitions Reed LLC.

Cavalcade Of Failing Campaigns

In Spring of 2022, state Bureau of Elections recommended that Johnson, Craig, Brandenburg, Brown and Markey be removed from the ballot for submitting invalid signatures. Brown withdrew from the race upon learning of the fraud. 

Elections staff identified 36 petition circulators that had submitted invalid signatures totaling nearly 70,000 invalid signatures across candidates.

Wilmoth and Wilmoth-Goodin, who reside in Michigan, were apprehended by the Warren Police Department and were set to be arraigned at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nessel said. United States marshals are currently working to locate Reed, who will be extradited to Michigan when he is apprehended.

Nessel’s office identified the three defendants as the principal actors who allegedly organized the fraud. However, the investigation is ongoing and there are certainly lesser offenders who may be charged or serve as witnesses in the case.

The Department of the Attorney General will also ask for financial restitution for the victims if the defendants are found guilty and sentenced, Nessel said.

In a supplemental report on the fraudulent activity released in May 2022, the bureau wrote it was “unaware of another election cycle in which this many circulators submitted such a substantial volume of fraudulent petition sheets.

The Department of State referred the matter to the Attorney General’s Office, which began its investigation in June 2022. 

“There Is No Question We Were Duped!”

How were these candidates fooled by a guy who is a full time Uber driver with a shady political background? Especially, a candidate like former Detroit Police Chief James Craig. Craig’s political consultant was long time GOP king maker John Yob. It’s apparent Yob and others did absolutely no due diligence on Wilmoth before they threw campaign money at him. 

A simple background check could have prevented this nightmare. They would have seen that he’s had multiple run-in with election officials in at least 2 states.

In 2011, Wilmoth was put on probation after he was convicted of hiring people with felonies to circulate petitions in Virginia, which was against the law at the time.

Read More About Political Fraudsters On MFI-Miami.com