Holland Real Estate Worker Sentenced for Bank Fraud

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—U.S. Attorney Donald A. Davis announced today that Janice Kay Branderhorst of Holland, Michigan was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell to 13 months in prison for bank fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a felony information charging Branderhorst with bank fraud on August 29, 2011. Branderhorst pled guilty to the charge on September 8, 2011.

Branderhorst, a former administrative assistant at the commercial real estate firm Focus Properties, fraudulently obtained $591,485.93 held in the custody of federally insured financial institutions from December 1999 through January 2010. Branderhorst wrote checks to herself from the accounts of Focus Properties and its related entities without authorization, forged signatures onto the checks, and deposited the checks into her own account to obtain the monies. Branderhorst also manipulated the books of Focus Properties and its related entities to conceal her fraud. In total, Branderhorst forged approximately 427 checks over her 10-year scheme. In addition to 13 months in prison, Branderhorst was sentenced to a five-year term of supervised release and was ordered to pay full restitution.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel