Vanishing payroll company victims include NC high school for basketball phenoms
The elusive payroll boss charged in connection to a multi-million dollar bank fraud scheme has claimed some unsuspecting victims: high school athletes.
Michael Mann, the president of MyPayrollHR's parent company ValueWise, was forced to shut down a school that attracted NBA hopefuls, according to DailyMail.com.
The demise of Lincoln Academy earlier this month left basketball prodigies scrambling for alternative options to keep their dreams of going to college and going pro alive.
The North Carolina school was founded by Mann in 2017 for rising high school basketball stars and since its opening, Mann has allegedly funneled tens of thousands of dollars into it. The 49-year-old even covered the bill for the school's top prospects which included tuition, board and lodging, DailyMail.com reported.
Lincoln Academy suddenly shuttered its doors around the same time as MyPayrollHR, which vanished with millions of payroll funds from approximately 1,000 small-business clients located across the country. The collapse and disappearance of the company sent shock waves through the United States leaving thousands of employees in the dark about paychecks they expected to receive and money that disappeared from their accounts- shock waves now reaching teenagers.
Mann was arrested Monday afternoon after allegations of criminal conduct involving MyPayrollHR arose. According to the criminal complaint, Mann is accused of using fake companies to fraudulently obtain at least $70 million in loans from banks and other financial institutions in a scheme launched sometime between 2010 or 2011.
Earlier this month, operations at his New York-based company stopped because Mann's accounts at Pioneer Bank and Bank of America were frozen.
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Mann appeared before United States Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Stewart Monday and was released on bond with pretrial supervision conditions. If convicted, Mann faces up to 30 years in prison, a maximum $1 million fine, and up to five years of post-release supervision.
Mann's court appearance comes a mere week after federal agents executed a search warrant at Mann's lakefront New York home "in connection to a federal investigation."
Meanwhile, the FBI bureau in Albany is continuing to seek information from people and businesses who may have been impacted.