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Monday, April 13, 2015

THE INGERSOLL GANG: Running Amuck...With Your Bucks!

NEWS FLASH! The State of Michigan Has Neither The Will Nor The Authority To Curb Charter Cheaters Like Convicted Felon Steven Ingersoll

Like you didn't already know that, right?

The shocking taxpayer-funded (and apparently state-sanctioned) $3.5 million dollar Grand Traverse Academy money laundering scheme, coupled with rampant insider dealing and what appears to be an airtight cover-up, will likely never be investigated or prosecuted by the State of Michigan.

But that doesn't mean the federal government has ended its investigation of Ingersoll and his merry gang of thieves.

On March 24, Ingersoll's criminal defense attorney, Martin Crandall, filed a motion for a new trial. A motion hearing has been set for May 6 at 3:00pm by U. S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington to review the new trial motion, and a restraining order against Ingersoll preventing him from putting any more of his property "beyond the reach of the court".

If Ingersoll is successful in getting a new trial, it would likely open many new doors for the prosecution.

Let's look at one today.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY/FULL SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT CONTRACT

"There was never an advancement  or more money provided to Smart Schools that they weren't entitled to, " Mark Noss said.
                                         -April 26, 2014
                     Traverse City Record-Eagle


In its March 31 motion for a restraining order, the government asked that Ingersoll be restrained from transferring his interest in real estate and "intellectual property that generates an income stream". Recent Grand Traverse Academy financial statements appear to indicate that approximately $300,000 is paid annually to Ingersoll's Smart Schools Incorporated for "curriculum materials”. 

While it’s clear from the GTA’s financial reports that, until March 19, 2014, Ingersoll’s company was receiving those payments, it’s unclear who currently receives the curriculum licensing fee.

However, from the management agreement signed by Mark Noss/Full Spectrum Management, LLC, it appears the fee could now be paid directly to Noss. 


And information I've uncovered indicates that Noss could have been sharing the fee with Ingersoll during the years he served on the GTA board.

According to publicly available documents describing the Smart Schools curriculum used at the Grand Traverse Academy, a major component of the curriculum is “Integrated Visual Learning”. As described on the Excel Institute’s website, Integrated Visual Learning is "an optometric process used to improve learning in students with vision problems". (The Excel Institute is a company founded by Steven Ingersoll, and run out of the same office space housing Mark Noss’s optometry practice in Traverse City.)  

Although “Integrated Visual Learning” is the foundation of much of Ingersoll’s “intellectual property”, the image at left, a screen capture from U. S. Copyright Office records, reveals Ingersoll and Mark Noss share the copyright for the original 1994 IVL process text. 

The shared copyright was undisclosed until I revealed the fact back on December 4, 2014 exclusively on this blog.

In addition, the Smart Schools Management and Full Spectrum Management “education service provider” contracts with the Grand Traverse Academy are virtually identical, and each carries the same information in Article 7.02 relating to “curriculum and educational models”:

SSM’s/FSM’s Rights in Curriculum and Educational Models: 


SSM/FSM shall own, without restriction, all curriculum and educational materials, and all other proprietary information owned by, developed by or otherwise in the possession of SSM/FSM, except as set forth in Article 7.01 above.
 

A member of Ingersoll's defense team was quoted in a December 3 court document stating, “Smart Schools Incorporated (SSI) holds the copyright for the school curriculum developed by Ingersoll. SSI licenses that curriculum to Smart Schools Management (SSM), which pays between $100,000 and $200,000 per year for a license for the use of the curriculum.”

However, a check of official United States Copyright Office records reveals that while Noss and Ingersoll are both named as copyright holders of the “Integrated vision therapy” text, SSI is not named. (An advanced search of official government copyright records returned no results for either "Smart Schools, Inc.",  "Smart Schools Management, Inc." or "SSM".)


Since the hastily arranged, pre-dawn meeting awarding the management contract to Noss and his Full Spectrum Management back on March 19, 2014, it's likely that Noss is now "in possession" of the proprietary curriculum information...and being paid a six-figure amount for its use, just like his fellow IVL copyright holder, Steven Ingersoll.
 
TOMORROW: 
STEVEN INGERSOLL'S CORPORATE  ENTITIES

While Ingersoll has a rat’s nest of business entities here in Michigan, he’s also sophisticated enough to have his own Delaware corporation and once even conducted business in Virginia.

4 comments:

  1. Sad that the State of Michigan's hands are so tied up that they can't /won't further investigate the $3.5 million dollars Ingersoll prepaid himself. One would hope that at least from the tax liability perspective, the State could have the appropriate amount of state taxes on Mr. Ingersoll's newly adjusted and underreported income. But, here's to the Feds taking their authority and duty of further investigating the financial irregularities of the Grand Traverse Academy and Ingersoll's $3.5 million prepayments (and that's not counting any irregularities for 2012, 2013, 2014)! Let the long arm of the law give all things Ingersoll (and let's not forget Mr. Noss!) a nice forensic audit and get their magnifying glasses out to scrutinize the books at the GTA and BCA!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What happened to the complete severing of ties that the Board said they did with SSM? And why the hell would GTA pay SSM when Ingersoll owes them money? Who's wagging the dog?

    Why is the Board allowing this? Why has the Board not fired Noss or sued him?

    Seems the only logical answer to those questions is that the Board members are all on the take as well!

    .... is Ingersoll that smart? Or are the laws so screwed up that they allow for criminals like him?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Ingersoll and charter school fraud should be investigated by the Governor now. This type of fraud is happening in charter and public schools. It needs to end. Ingersoll in prison should just be a start for the prison sentenaces for this case.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Charter school reform needs to happen. Where are the state reps? Why is this allowed to happen?

    ReplyDelete