2 arraigned, 1 at large in signature fraud ring that hit GOP gubernatorial candidates

LANSING, Mich. — Two individuals have been arraigned and a third remains at large in a criminal case stemming from a wide-ranging signature fraud scandal that knocked five Republican gubernatorial candidates out of Michigan's primary race last year.

Shawn Wilmoth and Jamie Wilmoth-Goodin were arrested Wednesday night and arraigned in 37th District Court Thursday afternoon on more than two dozen charges, according to court records. Their bond was set at $100,000, 10% cash surety, and both will be required to wear a steel cuff tether.

A third individual charged in the case, Willie Reed, is believed to be on the lam outside the state, according to Attorney General Dana Nessel.

Shawn Wilmoth, 36, and Reed, 37, face more than two dozen charges including conducting a criminal enterprise, various counts of false pretenses, using a computer to commit a crime, larceny and forgery under Michigan's election law. Jamie Wilmoth-Goodin, 36, faces similar charges.

Conducting a criminal enterprise, the most serious of the charges issued, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Nessel said there are "lesser offenders who also committed crimes," but labeled the Wilmouths and Reed "the worst actors" in a voter signature forgery ring.

"They absolutely knew that they were submitting forgeries to these campaigns," Nessel said at a news conference in Lansing. "... And what we are alleging is they made no effort to warn the campaigns or eliminate the signatures they knew to be fraudulent before they passed them along to the campaigns."

Criminal charges against the 36 signature collectors identified by the Secretary of State's office as participants in the fraud ring are not off the table, Nessel said.

"The investigation is ongoing," she said.

The Wilmoths were married in June 2022 a little more than two weeks after the signature fraud allegations were referred to Nessel for criminal investigation, according to Macomb County records.

The Wilmouths have been arrested; Reed remains at large, Nessel said Thursday.

Nine Michigan campaigns paid $700,000 to the defendants' signature-gathering companies, Nessel said, and received in return "hundreds of petitions chocked full of thousands of fraudulent signatures, signatures the defendants knew to be fraudulent."

"A lot of these candidates got taken because they were political neophytes and they had never done this before," Nessel said.

Five Republican candidates for governor could not get their names on the August 2022 primary ballot because the nominating petitions they turned into the state Bureau of Elections contained fraudulent voter signatures gathered by campaign contractors.

Entrepreneur Donna Brandenburg, one of the Republican candidates subject to the fraud, attended Thursday's press conference on the charges. She said she was appreciative of the charges being brought but stood by comments likening the signature gathering and review process to a "goat rodeo."

"When I hear AG Nessel even say, 'you've got political neophytes,'" Brandenburg said. "Isn't this what America is about? You should be able to run. I should be able to run. Everybody out there should be able to run, without having to dodge the gamut like Frogger."

Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who was a leading candidate in the GOP primary prior to the signature fraud scandal, said Thursday he appreciates the Democratic attorney general's work.

Signature fraud, he said, could affect any candidate regardless of party affiliation.

"Unfortunately, it is both the Michigan voters and the candidates who were victims because of their fraud," Craig told The Detroit News.

Businessman Perry Johnson, another GOP gubernatorial candidate knocked off the ballot last because of signature fraud, described what happened as "egregious."

Johnson, who is now running for the Republican presidential nomination, spent roughly $7.5 million on the failed gubernatorial campaign, only to be bounced off the primary ballot.

"It was one of the most devastating experiences of my life," Johnson told The News.

Shawn Wilmoth and Reed face one count each of conducting a criminal enterprise, eight counts of election law forgery, three counts of false pretense of $100,000 or more, two counts of false pretenses of more than $50,000, three counts of false presences of more than $20,000, eight counts of using a computer to commit a crime of $20,000 or more, one count of using a computer to commit a crime of more than $1,000, ad one count of larceny by conversion of more than $1,000.

Jamie Wilmoth-Goodin faces the same charges with the exception of the last two: Using a computer to commit a crime of more than $1,000 and larceny by conversion.

The charges come a little more than a year after Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office referred to Nessel a suspected forgery operation that compromised ballot placement for five of 10 Republican gubernatorial hopefuls. Benson's office found those five candidates fell short of the needed 15,000 signatures to appear on the August primary ballot in part because of thousands of invalid signatures.

Benson's office tracked 36 petition circulators who submitted "fraudulent petition sheets consisting entirely of invalid signatures." The Bureau of Elections estimated about 68,000 invalid signatures were submitted across 10 sets of nominating petitions.

Police raided Shawn Wilmoth's home in June of last year in relation to the investigation into the signature fraud allegations.

Shawn Wilmoth was accused by Craig's campaign of being involved in a signature forgery scandal that kept the Republican gubernatorial candidate off of the August primary ballot. Instead, Craig filed to run unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate.

In a civil lawsuit last year, Craig said his main signature contractor, Vanguard Field Strategies, subcontracted with In Field Strategies on the premise that the signature collection firm would secure signatures with an at least 70% validity rate. But In Field Strategies "secretly" and "recklessly" subcontracted with a company run by Shawn Wilmoth who "used another man as its 'front'" named Willie Reed, according to the complaint.

Reed served as In Field's "Michigan manager" and used Shawn Wilmoth's circulators to collect signatures ultimately deemed fraudulent, the complaint said.

Nessel said other candidates who used the vendors knew the petitions were "garbage" and contained forgeries and decided to not submit those signatures in their bids to get on the ballot.

At $13 a signature, the group submitted a total of 14,310 signatures for Craig's campaign, of which about 9,879 were fully examined to show they were invalid — leaving Craig's campaign with a 30% validity rate, the lawsuit alleged.

Shawn Wilmoth previously pleaded guilty to two counts of election fraud in 2011, according to a Florida TV station. Shawn Wilmoth told the station he was convicted of "two counts of false statements on (a) required form."

Besides Craig and Johnson, nominating petitions also were rejected for judicial candidates Tricia Dare, John Cahalan and John Michael Malone and for GOP gubernatorial candidates Michael Markey, a Grand Haven financial advisor, Michigan State Police Capt. Michael Brown and Allendale real estate broker Ryan Kelley.

Kelley, who paid $15,000 for signatures, received zero back but was able to qualify for the ballot with other signatures collected, according to the attorney general's office.

Brown, who withdrew from the race after hearing of the fraud, thanked the attorney general's office Thursday for its work on the investigation and family and friends for their support.

"The coming months will shed light on the alleged actions of this group that caused significant disruption of the electoral process in 2022," Brown said in a statement.

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(Staff writer Craig Mauger contributed)