A Florida man has been sentenced after a jury found him guilty of flooding Michigan gubernatorial campaigns with forged nomination signatures during the 2022 election cycle.
Willie Reed, of Pompano Beach, was sentenced Tuesday in Macomb County’s 16th Circuit Court to 24 months to 240 months in prison, according to a release from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
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Judge James Maceroni also ordered Reed to pay $333,817 in restitution to his victims.
Gubernatorial candidates James Craig, Perry Johnson, Michael Markey, and Ryan Kelley hired Reed, directly or through intermediary consultants, to collect the nomination signatures they needed to appear on the August 2022 primary ballot.
The campaigns paid Reed’s business nearly $350,000 for the work.
Instead of delivering valid signatures, Reed knowingly submitted tens of thousands of forged ones, according to the release.
A Macomb County jury convicted him of the following:
- One count of conducting a criminal enterprise
- Two counts of false pretenses, $100,000 or more
- One count of false pretenses, $50,000 to $100,000
- Three counts of use of a computer to commit a crime, $20,000 or more
- One count of use of a computer to commit a crime, $1,000 to $20,000
- One count of larceny by conversion, $1,000 to $20,000
- Three counts of election law forgery
Reed ran the scheme alongside Shawn Wilmoth of Warren.
Wilmoth was sentenced earlier this month to 4 to 20 years in prison and was ordered to pay $376,601 in restitution. Both men were charged in September 2023.
Read more: Warren man sentenced for submitting thousands of fake signatures in 2022 election scheme
The Michigan Bureau of Elections caught the forgeries quickly after the petitions were submitted. The Department of State referred the case to Nessel’s office for investigation in June 2022.
“The actions of the defendants deliberately undermined our electoral process and denied voters their choices in our primary,” Nessel said. “I hope this outcome serves as a deterrent to others who attempt to subvert our system. My department remains committed to defending the integrity of our elections and is pleased that Mr. Wilmoth and Mr. Reed will be held fully accountable for their fraudulent scheme.”