BETTER CALL SAUL, STEVE: Bay City Academy Facing Investigation Into “Grossly Negligent, Fraudulent” Conduct By Ingersoll & Several Insiders Surrounding Sale Of Ingersoll-Owned Building To Bay City Academy
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Here’s a stunner: after Michigan taxpayers paid off Steven Ingersoll’s mortgage on a building located at 301 N. Farragut Street, the Bay City Academy bought it (with taxpayer money) for $1.1 million. The building houses the Bay City Academy, a charter school founded in 2012 by Ingersoll.
ALLEGATIONS:
From on or about June 29, 2021 through on or about April 25, 2022, Steven J. Ingersoll, Brian T. Lynch, Michael Randel, Sandra J. Oliver, Lena M. Jankowiak and other co-conspirators executed a scheme to defraud the U.S. government by “fraudulently conveying” a building owned by Ingersoll to the Bay City Academy.
In the process, the Academy provided misleading documentation to the Lake Superior State University Charter Schools office (including the “Bay City Academy Building Acquisition Due Diligence” which deliberately misidentified the “seller”); exhibited fraudulent conduct by the Academy’s management company and its Board president in executing the sale; and disregarded state and federal laws governing outstanding income tax debt and resulting tax liens.
Fraudulent conveyances are transfers of a debtor’s property made to defraud, burden, and unfairly place the property out of reach of the creditor. Ingersoll owes millions in delinquent federal income tax to the IRS, and has a significant tax debt to the Michigan Department of Treasury.
Selling the 301 N. Farragut Street building via a land contract temporarily allowed Steven Ingersoll to avoid paying his hefty federal tax liens and outstanding federal income tax, while providing Ingersoll with a $14,000 monthly mortgage payment.
Attempting to avoid the imminent attachment of the federal tax lien, taxpayers like Ingersoll have transferred their assets to legal entities that they or their friends or relatives control — in this case, Sandra J. Oliver, the wife of a disbarred Minnesota attorney (Timothy Jon Oliver) who served his 41-month sentence for felony wire fraud at FCI-Duluth.
Ingersoll, who served his tax fraud sentence at the same prison during the same time as Oliver, had no prior relationship with either Oliver or his wife.
In addition to her role in the Farragut building transfer, Sandra J. Oliver has formed multiple corporations on Ingersoll’s behalf — cloaking his return to “visual learning” in Minnesota, South Carolina and Georgia.
The April 2022 sale of an Ingersoll-owned building that currently houses the Bay City Academy, located at 301 N. Farragut Street in Bay City, was executed on Ingersoll’s behalf via a byzantine series of moves initiated by Minnesota resident, Sandra J. Oliver and facilitated by Mitten Educational Management, LLC’s Brian T. Lynch and Michael Randel.
Please submit requests for additional information, or questions about the allegations made in this email, to me in writing at anitasenkowski@yahoo.com.
BAY CITY ACADEMY CHARTER CONTRACT VIOLATIONS:
-FAILURE OF THE ACADEMY TO COMPLY WITH ALL APPLICABLE LAW;
-“GROSSLY NEGLIGENT, FRAUDULENT OR CRIMINAL CONDUCT” BY THE ACADEMY’S APPLICANTS, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES OR AGENTS IN RELATION TO THEIR PERFORMANCE UNDER CONTRACT;
-PROVIDING FALSE OR MISLEADING INFORMATION OR DOCUMENTATION TO THE CHARTER SCHOOLS OFFICE.
PARTIES INVOLVED:
Steven J. Ingersoll: Bay City, Michigan, resident, former optometrist, charter school manager and convicted felon, appears to have conspired with up to six business and personal insiders to “fraudulently convey” 301 N. Farragut Street (“Farragut Schoolhouse LLC), a building he owned, to the Bay City Academy, a charter school he founded and managed from 2010–2015.
Brian T. Lynch: son-in-law of Mark D. Noss. Heads Bay City Academy as CEO of its management company, Mitten Educational Management; former Superintendent of Bay City Academy. Prior to Bay City Academy, Lynch taught at the Grand Traverse Academy, a charter school that Ingersoll formed.
Michael Randel: CPA; Brian Lynch’s business partner, Mitten Educational Management
Lena M. Jankowiak: President, Bay City Academy Board of Directors. Jankowiak signed an April 20, 2022 “Memorandum of Land Contract” as Board President of the Bay City Academy, a Michigan non-profit corporation.
Sandra J. Oliver: Minnesota resident and wife of Timothy Jon Oliver, a Plymouth, MN attorney sentenced in 2016 to 41 months in prison for stealing $500,000 from ARS Tectonica, a Mexican construction company. Timothy Oliver’s and Steven J. Ingersoll’s terms at FPC-Duluth overlapped; there was no prior relationship.
ALLEGATIONS:
From on or about June 29, 2021 through on or about April 25, 2022, Steven J. Ingersoll, Brian T. Lynch, Michael Randel, Sandra J. Oliver, Lena M. Jankowiak other co-conspirators perpetrated a scheme to defraud the U.S. government by “fraudulently conveying” a building owned by Ingersoll to the Bay City Academy. The April 2022 sale of an Ingersoll-owned building that currently houses the Bay City Academy, located at 301 N. Farragut Street in Bay City, was executed on Ingersoll’s behalf via a byzantine series of moves initiated by Minnesota resident, Sandra J. Oliver and aided Mitten Educational Management, LLC’s Brian T. Lynch and Michael Randel.
In the process, the Academy provided misleading documentation to the Lake Superior State University Charter Schools office (including the “Bay City Academy Building Acquisition Due Diligence” which deliberately misidentified the “seller”); exhibited fraudulent conduct by the Academy’s management company and its Board president in executing the sale; and disregarded state and federal laws governing outstanding income tax debt and resulting tax liens.
Fraudulent conveyances are transfers of a debtor’s property made to defraud, burden, and unfairly place the property out of reach of the creditor. Ingersoll owes millions in delinquent federal income tax to the IRS, and has a significant tax debt to the Michigan Department of Treasury.
Selling the 301 N. Farragut Street building via a land contract temporarily allowed Steven Ingersoll to avoid paying his hefty federal tax liens and outstanding federal income tax.
Attempting to avoid the imminent attachment of the federal tax lien, taxpayers like Ingersoll have transferred their assets to legal entities that they or their friends or relatives control — in this case, Sandra J. Oliver.
This maneuver will generally be unsuccessful, because the federal tax lien extends to property held by a third party if that third party is either the “alter ego” or the nominee of the taxpayer. The factors which are relevant in determining whether such a situation exists are similar to the factors which are used in deciding whether a taxpayer has fraudulently conveyed property to keep it from the reach of creditors.
APRIL 2022 FRAUDULENT PROPERTY TRANSFER TO AVOID FEDERAL AND STATE TAX LEINS
On April 20, 2022, days after taxpayer funds paid off a commercial construction mortgage on the Bay City building Ingersoll had owned since 2012, his co-conspirators crafted a scheme that transferred ownership of the building to the Bay City Academy, a charter school founded by Ingersoll, while allowing Ingersoll to effectively retain control of the property and receive mortgage payments. (Ingersoll had defaulted on the loan in 2016, and the mortgage holder, Wildfire Credit Union, exercised its “Assignment of Rents clause to apply the charter school’s rent payments to Ingersoll’s debt.)
The property sale process was facilitated by insider Sandra J. Oliver, a Minnesota resident. (Oliver is the wife of Timothy Jon Oliver, a Plymouth, MN attorney sentenced in 2016 to 41 months in prison for stealing $500,000 from ARS Tectonica, a Mexican construction company. Timothy Oliver’s and Steven J. Ingersoll’s terms at FPC-Duluth overlapped.)
On April 20, 2022, Oliver fraudulently portrayed herself as the “CEO of Farragut Schoolhouse LLC”, a Michigan entity formed by Ingersoll, in the official Bay County, Michigan, “Warranty Deed” property transfer document.
State of Michigan Corporation records directly contradict Oliver’s assertion: she is not a member of Farragut Schoolhouse LLC.
In addition, the “Warranty Deed” was notarized on April 20, 2022 in Two Harbors, MN, by Jessica Mae Altobell, who works for the Two Harbors Credit Union.
On April 20, 2022, Oliver, the faux “CEO of Farragut Schoolhouse”, then transferred the Farragut St. building to a Michigan entity she did control for $1.00: “Michigan ALN Properties, LLC”, registered at 1562 Burlington Road, Suite A, Two Harbors, MN 55616.
Michigan ALN Properties was formed by Oliver on July 2, 2021; State ID# 802698159.
On April 20, 2022, Oliver, as the manager of Michigan ALN Properties, LLC, then “sold” the building to the Bay City Academy for $1.1 million via a Land Contract.
Sandra J. Oliver was on both sides of the initial transaction: as “Seller” (purported CEO of Farragut Schoolhouse, LLC) and “Buyer” (manager of Michigan ALN Properties, LLC), before Michigan ALN Properties, LLC sold the building to the Bay City Academy.
On April 20, 2022, Lena Jankowiak signed a “Memorandum of Land Contract” as Board President of the Bay City Academy, a Michigan non-profit corporation.
On April 20, 2022, in an official Bay City Academy “Building Acquisition Due Diligence” document produced by its management company, Mitten Educational Management, Mitten’s managers (Brian Lynch and Michael Randel) intentionally misidentified the seller of the building as “ALN Properties, LLC”, a Minnesota-based Limited Liability Corporation, whose address is 6240 Homestead Road, Duluth, Minnesota 55804.
That assertion is directly contradicted by evidence included with this complaint, including official Michigan Treasury Department Property Transfer Affidavits. The “seller” was Oliver’s “Michigan ALN Properties, LLC”, a Michigan Limited Liability Corporation.
In my opinion, Mitten Educational Management used the similarly-named corporation in a conscious effort to deceive.
In addition, Sandra J. Oliver has formed and registered Limited Liability Corporations on behalf of, and for the financial benefit of, Steven J. Ingersoll.
Although nominally “owned” by Oliver, the corporations are “cover” for what is Steven Ingersoll’s launch of several “visual learning education” businesses.
Oliver registered these two corporations in her home state using the same Two Harbors, MN address used in forming “Michigan ALN Properties, LLC”: Minnesota ICONIX Learning Center, LLC and Minnesota Developmental Academy.
Websites for both the ICONIX Learning Center and the Minnesota Development Academy reveal nearly identical “visual learning” therapies as those Ingersoll previously promulgated at the Bay City Academy and Grand Traverse Academy under his trademarked “Integrated Visual Learning”, or IVL.
Ingersoll now calls his method “Developmental Visual Learning”, or DVL, and even provides the voice-over for the “DVL Summary”.
HISTORY/BACKGROUND OF THE FARRAGUT SCHOOLHOUSE BUILDING:
Located at 301 N. Farragut Street in Bay City, the building was transferred to the Bay City Academy in late April 2022 on Ingersoll’s behalf via a series of moves initiated by Minnesota resident, Sandra J. Oliver.
Just days before the April 22, 2022 transfer, taxpayer funds (in the form of monthly rent payments) had paid off a $782,838 commercial construction mortgage Ingersoll had entered into in 2013 with Wildfire Credit Union. Ingersoll defaulted on the loan in late June, 2016, which triggered an “Assignment of Rents” agreement with Wildfire that allowed the credit union to negotiate and collect rents, delinquent taxes, including amounts past due, directly from the Bay City Academy.
In 2013, as owner of the building, Ingersoll crafted a twenty-year “non-cancellable lease” agreement with the Bay City Academy for the Farragut Schoolhouse building. The agreement gave Ingersoll a soft landing when he ultimately defaulted on its Wildfire Credit Union construction mortgage. Ingersoll later revised the rental agreement in June 2016, obligating the Academy (not Ingersoll) to pay nearly $170,000 in delinquent payments to Wildfire Credit Union that had accrued between July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016.
Ingersoll issued his first lease extension in 2017 while he was in federal prison, and the second extension, dated June 30, 2019, revealed Ingersoll’s scheme to use inflated monthly rent payments, beginning July 1, 2019, that ultimately discharged his Wildfire Credit Union mortgage debt by April 2022.
Monthly lease payments by the Bay City Academy to Wildfire Credit Union ranged from $8,000 per month for the year ending June 30, 2017 to $9,750 for the year ending June 30, 2021.
Under the terms of the land contract sale made by Sandra J. Oliver, the Bay City Academy’s monthly payments jumped from 2021’s $9,750 rent to a $14,000 monthly land contract mortgage payment.
JUNE 2021 FRAUDULENT PROPERTY TRANSFER ACTIVITIES: Brian Lynch, Michael Randel “Due Diligence”
In his management company’s “Due Diligence” report on behalf of the Farragut Schoolhouse building acquisition by the Bay City Academy, Brian Lynch notes the potential purchase of the building was “presented to the Bay City Academy Board of Directors at a publicly noticed meeting” on June 29th, 2021 — just three days before Sandra J. Oliver formed “Michigan ALN Properties, LLC” from her Minnesota home.
LIST OF DOCUMENTS INCLUDED WITH COMPLAINT:
August 25, 2021: Steven Ingersoll Notice of Federal Lien
March 21, 2022: Steven Ingersoll Notice of Michigan Tax Lien
April 19, 2022: Bay County Memorandum of Land Contract between Bay City Academy and Michigan ALN Properties, LLC
April 20, 2022: Michigan Department of Treasury Property Transfer Affidavits
April 20, 2022: Bay County Warranty Deed for 301 N. Farragut Street (Farragut Schoolhouse LLC)
April 2022: Bay City Academy Building Acquisition Due Diligence
April 29, 2022: Discharge of Assignment of Rents by a Corporation between Farragut Schoolhouse LLC and Wildfire Credit Union
April 29, 2022: Discharge of a Mortgage by a Corporation between Farragut Schoolhouse LLC and Wildfire Credit Union
