Man convicted of bilking elderly woman of $300,000

Gary Edward "Duke" Haynes

MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI – A so-called “financial planner” has been convicted of 14 felonies related to the theft of more than $300,000 from an elderly widow who said she was left practically destitute.

A Muskegon County jury convicted Gary Edward “Duke” Haynes, 58, of nine counts of embezzlement from a vulnerable adult, four counts of filing a false tax return and one count of conducting a criminal enterprise.

Haynes has addresses in Spring Lake and Comstock Park, according to state documents.

The charges were brought by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. Haynes met the victim in 2006 at a financial planning seminar he led and served as her agent for 10 years, according to Schuette’s office.

Schuette alleged that Haynes had taken the woman’s money from her account and transferred it to bank accounts belonging to his two companies: Senior Planning Resource and Future by Design. He had told the woman some of the money would be invested in annuities in her name, but it never was, according to Schuette’s office.

He took more than $300,000 over four years, documents show.

Haynes was tried this week in the courtroom of Muskegon County Circuit Judge Annette Smedley. The jury returned its guilty verdict on Thursday, Dec. 20. Sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Feb. 1.

The woman, who was 85 at the time she met Haynes, paid a fee to attend Haynes’ 2006 financial planning seminar. She asked him to help her pay her bills because she was not comfortable with computerized billing, according to Schuette’s office. She gave him access to her computer, financial accounts and passwords, according to the attorney general’s office.

Eventually, she became suspicious he was stealing from her and alerted her nephew who contacted authorities.

During testimony at Haynes’ preliminary examination, the woman said she moved to the Fruitport area from Arizona in 2005. Aside from a cleaning lady who also took her on errands, the woman said she didn’t have local friends or family who she saw regularly.

“I talked to (Haynes) about handling my affairs because I had no one and I didn’t know anyone here,” she testified.

She said Haynes would come to her home and use her computer to pay her bills. Some months, he never showed up, her bills were late and she had to pay late fees, she said.

The woman testified that her savings were wiped out and she was living only on Social Security checks that weren’t enough to pay all her bills. She said she was paying just enough to “satisfy” her creditors.

Under questioning from Haynes’ attorney, the woman said she never gave Haynes permission to make a loan to him or put her money in a “house flipping company” or any of his other businesses or bank accounts. She also didn’t agree to be a business partner of his or otherwise finance his activities, she testified.

She had never made any sort of arrangement to pay Haynes for his services, the woman said.

According to a state document, Haynes allegedly was successful in “coercing” the woman to liquidate a $107,735 annuity and place the funds in a bank account he controlled. He then invested the funds in a “risky and illiquid ‘house flipping’ venture,” according to the notice of intent to revoke Haynes’ investment adviser representative registration.

Haynes’ registration was revoked by the state, and the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs fined him $10,000 in April.

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Man convicted of bilking elderly woman of $300,000