Michael Conway, the president of Choice Office Solutions, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud an individual investor and DLL Solutions Partner (DLLFSP) of more than $3.5 million.

Pursuant to the plea agreement, Conway has agreed that he is liable to pay restitution in the amount of $3,555,493.40 to the individual investor and $1,203,516 to DLLFSP.  When sentenced, Conway faces up to 20 years in prison.

The guilty plea was announced by Robert L. Capers, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Diego Rodriguez, assistant director-in-charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York field office.

According to court filings and facts presented at the plea hearing, between March 2014 to August 2015, Conway forged lease agreements with various companies in the business of leasing office equipment, and then used these fraudulent agreements to obtain financing from private investors.

One of the fraudulent leasing agreements was purportedly with the New York Mets. Relying on it, the individual investor wire transferred approximately $500,000 to Conway’s bank account to purchase office equipment. Conway then used the same forged lease agreement, and a forged authorization letter from the New York Mets purportedly signed by Jeffrey Wilpon, the team’s COO, to obtain financing from DLLFSP. Based on these fraudulent documents, DLLFSP wire transferred a total of approximately $313,000 to Conway’s bank account. Through this and other forgeries, Conway defrauded DLLFSP of more than $1 million.

“Through a web of lies, deceit and forgeries, Michael Conway induced an individual investor and a lending firm to invest millions of dollars with his company,” said Capers. “Conway presented his unsuspecting victims with forged lease agreements and represented to them that he had entered into lucrative contracts to lease office equipment with more than 50 companies, including law firms, universities and a Major League Baseball franchise, when in reality, a number of these agreements were worthless.”