STEVEN INGERSOLL'S MONEY COUCH: “I Rifled Through The Seat Cushions To Get The Money To Do The Things That I Needed To Do.”

“The evidence before the court reveals that Ingersoll could not look to his own assets or those of his entities to fund his grandiose BCA project, so he merely took the money he wanted from the place where he could find it – in the GTA accounts he controlled.”  

-February 19, 2016

 Prosecution Sentencing Brief
UNITED STATES V. INGERSOLL

On February 4, 2016, U. S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington directed the prosecution and defense to address Steven Ingersoll’s solvency as of August 10, 2010, the date of Ingersoll’s Chemical Bank construction loan application. 

(Ingersoll’s supplemental brief failed to address this issue.)

According to the prosecution, this omission was telling, as no one had better information regarding Steven Ingersoll’s financial situation then Ingersoll himself. 

Ingersoll’s recent sentencing hearing testimony casts some light on the question, however.

Ingersoll essentially acknowledged that he took money from where ever he could find it and moved it to where ever he needed, at will:

  

“When $30,000 was needed for this or that, I looked in my accounts online in the bank and just found the money where it was and spent it on the project, figuring I’d clean it up once I got my accounting in order. That’s what I did. I rifled through the seat cushions essentially to get the money to do the things that I needed to do.” 

Ingersoll further explained: 

  

“This is now ’10 moving up to – and then in ’11, March through June, I utilized the line of credit at Traverse City State Bank and relied on the return from the construction line of credit and then used the return from the construction line of credit to – to the original purpose of the line of credit, which was support of GTA.”

The situation described by Ingersoll during his testimony contrasted with the financial picture he presented to Chemical Bank and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to secure the construction loan for the Bay City Academy church-to-school renovation project. 

In fact, when he testified at his sentencing hearing, Ingersoll appeared to admit that he did not tell Chemical Bank or the USDA that he then owed $3.5 million to the Grand Traverse Academy, although he realized that that obligation would adversely affect his net worth. 

As the prosecution asserted in its February 19, 2016 supplemental sentencing brief, there are compelling reasons to find that Ingersoll testified falsely when he claimed that the seed money for his Bay City Academy project came from the million dollar Traverse City State Bank line of credit rather than from Grand Traverse Academy funds. 

Nevertheless, the prosecution asserts that evidence before the court revealed that Ingersoll could not look to his own assets or those of his entities to fund his grandiose Bay City Academy project, so he took the money he wanted from the place where he could find it – in the Grand Traverse Academy accounts he controlled. 

Steven Ingersoll lacked the personal financial solvency required to fund the Bay City Academy project but not, according to the prosection, the money to pull it off.

Maybe he did find millions in the seat cushions.

Wanna bet those cushions are stashed away in the Perry House?