OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A disgraced Oakland County businessman used a fake name to scam Israeli investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to fund hobbies such as fantasy football, video games, and more, officials said.
A criminal complaint was filed Thursday (Aug. 4) against Sean Phillip Tissue and accuses him of committing wire fraud.
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Previous real estate investment fraud
The complaint outlines a previous real estate investment fraud scheme linked to Tissue several years ago.
Tissue admitted in court records in June 2017 that he had participated in a real estate investment-based wire fraud scheme around 2015, according to authorities.
Several investors sued Tissue and his companies in Texas. As part of the lawsuit, Tissue admitted to defrauding the investors out of more than $500,000, court records show.
Investors said they paid Tissue and his companies money with the expectation that he would purchase and construct real estate on their behalf. Tissue did not follow through with those purchases, authorities said.
Centureon created
Federal officials accuse Tissue of beginning a new iteration of that investment fraud scheme in August 2018 by forming The Centureon Companies, Inc.
Tissue used the pseudonym “Sean Ryan” with Centureon investors and vendors, “possibly due to the prior civil suits against him, identifying his previous fraud,” the criminal complaint reads.
Authorities said Centureon was formed with a resident agent address in Flint and no registered office mailing address. But the September 2018 monthly statement was sent to Centureon at an address in Lake Orion that belonged to Tissue’s fiancee, according to officials.
The criminal complaint says the March 2019 statement was sent to an address in Bloomfield Township. That address also belonged to Tissue’s fiancee, according to court records.
The September 2020 statement was sent to an Oakland Township address where Tissue was living at the time, the criminal complaint says.
Tissue and his employees and agents used email addresses with the domain name “@rentvestor.com” when communicating with investors and business partners, officials said.
$600,000 stolen from Israeli investors
Court records show Centureon used Israeli recruiters and facilitators to target Israeli investors who wanted to buy real estate in the United States.
In at least one case, investors were told to direct funds to a title agency in Oakland County, but they were actually given bank and routing information for Centureon’s bank account, according to authorities.
On Jan. 24, 2019, a person described as a business partner for Centureon emailed Israeli investors in Hebrew and copied “Sean Ryan,” officials said. The email directed the investors to wire $634,175 to a specific title agency in Oakland County to be used for purchasing real estate, the criminal complaint says.
That sum was from four individuals who paid about $221,517, $110,790, $150,933, and $150,933, respectively, authorities said.
In reality, the routing information provided in the email directed the money to Centureon’s bank account, according to officials. The investors said they thought they were paying a title agency, but Centureon took their money and didn’t provide the properties that had been promised.
Records from Centureon’s JPMorgan Chase bank account show the wires from Israel were received on the following dates:
- Jan. 29, 2019: $110,000
- Jan. 29, 2019: $150,933
- Jan. 30, 2019: $218,278
- Jan. 31, 2019: $150,933
“I believe that the above international wires were payment made to Centureon, and thereby, Tissue, by the Israeli investors based on the false representation that the investors were sending money to escrow to U.S. property from Centureon,” an FBI special agent wrote in the complaint.
Centureon did not provide the properties as promised, according to officials.
Failure to provide renovations, property management to investors
In other cases, Centureon would promise to provide renovations and property management services to investors who purchased Detroit-area properties, the criminal complaint says.
Those investors only received a deed and a few months of what they believed to be tenant payments before Centureon cut off contact, authorities said.
One Israeli investor told officials that he had been recruited by two Israeli recruiters who put him in touch with Centureon. He communicated with “Sean Ryan” and two other employees of the company, court records said.
The investor said he bought two Detroit-area properties, including renovations and property management services, from Centureon. One of the properties was on Kentfield Street in Detroit, according to the complaint.
The deed to the Kentfield Street property was given to the investor after he purchased the property for $52,550 on Jan. 2, 2020, officials said.
“According to (the investor), Centureon provided deeds to the properties that (the investor) purchased, but did not provide renovations,” the criminal complaint reads.
Centureon sent money labelled as tenant rent payments for a few months before cutting off contact with the investor, according to authorities.
Investor discovers ‘Sean Ryan’ was actually Tissue
The investor’s attorney asked Tissue to fix the problems with the houses or return his client’s money, court records show. Tissue’s lawyer replied that Tissue would correct the error, but after several months, that lawyer left because he wasn’t getting paid by Tissue, according to officials.
“(The investor’s) attorney then contacted Tissue directly, and Tissue again said that he would make things right, but again ended up doing nothing,” the complaint reads. “In the course of preparing a lawsuit against ‘Sean Ryan,’ (the investor) learned that ‘Sean Ryan’ was, in fact, Tissue.”
The investor spoke with others on social media and found a group of about 15 other Israeli investors who had been scammed by Tissue, according to officials.
“Through my investigation, I have also learned of other Israeli investors who I believe to have been defrauded by Tissue as part of the Centureon scheme,” the special agent wrote.
Money used to fund Tissue’s hobbies
Bank records show Centureon’s account received money until April 2021, officials said. The account closed in July 2021, according to court records.
The complaint says that in addition to real estate payments, bank records show significant spending on entertainment, fantasy football, museum admissions, movie theaters, gambling, Universal Studios, a home theater company, a country club, a ski resort, martial arts training, concert tickets, water sports, Xbox Live, a water park, medical care, a private physicians group, student loans, other retail purchases, shopping, and private schooling.
Those purchases appear to have been made for Tissue’s personal benefit, officials said.
Charges
The criminal complaint concludes that Tissue devised a scheme to defraud investors and obtain money through Centureon.
It says there’s probable cause that Tissue committed wire fraud and requests a warrant be issued authorizing his arrest.