Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Couple Face Felony Charges
PRAIRIE GROVE — A Lincoln man is facing felony theft of property by deception after he allegedly stole $40,000 through a wire transfer and the investigation has turned up additional victims in four other states, according to Detective Jeff O’Brien with the Prairie Grove Police Department.
Michael Sanders, 37, of 13975 Highway 45 South in Lincoln, was arrested May 8 following a joint investigation between Prairie Grove and the Washington County Sheriff ’s Off ice. Michael Sanders is in the county detention center on a $ 100,000 bond.
Sanders also is being held for contempt of court stemming from a civil suit in Prairie Grove District Court and for two felony warrants out of Texas.
Police cited Sanders’ wife, Mindee Sanders, 34, of 13975 Highway 45 South in Lincoln, with felony theft of property by deception.
She did not have to post bond and was released from the county detention center May 7.
O’Brien said he received a call in mid-April from Jerry Bensinger of Hubbard, Ohio, claiming that he was scammed of $40,000. Bensinger, a dealer of rare sports cars, runs ads in national magazines looking for vehicles to purchase. Michael Sanders responded to an ad, claiming he had inherited a Maserati vehicle and Ferrari sports car from his deceased grandfather and that he would sell Bensinger the two vehicles.
The victim said he agreed to wire $40,000 to Sanders’ Arvest Bank account as a down payment for the sports cars. According to a news release from the sheriff ’s department, Sanders then went to the Arvest Bank in Prairie Grove and withdrew the proceeds of the wire transfer.
O’Brien said Bensinger “was livid that he lost $40,000 and he went on the hunt and was able to track the money to Arvest Bank in Prairie Grove.” Bensinger then contacted Prairie Grove police for assistance in recovering his money.
O’Brien said he contacted the sheriff’s office in early May when he discovered that the investigation was much bigger than one victim. During the investigation, O’Brien said he found six more victims of similar scams by Michael Sanders and contacted each of these victims. The victims were owners of various companies located in Illinois, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Hawaii.
O’Brien said the investigation determined that Sanders had stolen a total of $91,200 from the seven victims since December. The investigation also revealed that Sanders had been stealing money via wire fraud by advertising the sale of items that he did not possess priced between $ 100,000 and $500,000 in magazines and on the Internet.
The other victims had not reported the thefts, O’Brien said, because they did not believe the money could be traced or they did not know how to locate the suspect.
He added that he believes there are probably other victims out there who have not reported anything because of the nature of the crime.
“His victims described him as being very good at what he does,” O’Brien said.
According to O’Brien, Sanders had only lived in Lincoln since January and had lived outside Farmington on Little Elm Road prior to the Lincoln address.