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(WJBK) - He's a one-man crime wave who destroyed the lives of dozens of victims including his own family.
John Houston Floyd didn't use a gun. He used trickery, fake names, and forged contracts to live the good life - but the party's over now.
It started with a poor guy who got ripped off by a contractor. A contractor who used a fake name. It ends with the bad guy going away to prison for up to 21 years.
Entering the court room, it’s super scam artist John Floyd. It was sentencing day and he’s looking at a long prison sentence and he’s really sorry.
John Floyd: “Yes, your honor, I apologize to all the victims impacted by my mismanagement and poor choices.”
Judge Hala Jarbou, “There were a lot of them.”
John Floyd: “Correct.”
There sure are. Some of John’s victims are in the court room to see him put away.
Wolchek: "How much does he owe you?"
"One hundred three thousand,” said the victim.
Even though he owed $100,000 in restitution for old fraud crimes the system wasn’t really putting any pressure on him to pay up. And even though he’d been busted again for many DUI’s no one seemed to be coming after him.
That all changed when I put John in the Fox 2 Hall of Shame.
Wolchek: “You’re a crook, you’re a drunk, you got a bunch of DUIs.”
Floyd: “Who’s a crook?”
Wolchek: “You’re a crook, look, see that? That is a crook. And that’s you.”
It all started with a guy named Danny who contacted me saying a contractor named John Patricina had taken $5,000 for a driveway repair. But, John Patricina turned out to be a fake name, one of many aliases, for John Houston Floyd.
I found a bunch of other victims taken by Floyd using fake names. I confronted Floyd and he pretty much denied everything.
Wolchek: "You owe a bunch of money.” Floyd: “I didn’t steal the money.”
I put Floyd in the Hall of Shame. The police and prosecutor saw the story and soon started putting the pieces together.
John was locked up for his DUIs while the detectives in Rochester working with the Attorney General’s Office, put together a case.
Then I was contacted by John Floyd’s wife Stephanie who discovered she was duped by her own husband. She found a cache of phones, life insurance policies, and fake signatures on contracts in her name.
“I believe and trust in the people that I love," Stephanie said. "And he took that love and he used it and he’s used me and destroyed everything."
She went to the cops. Other women came forward as well who were tricked into signing contracts he used to commit his fraud.
Basically the dude’s a master con man - to everyone. Last month Floyd pleaded guilty to taking money under false pretenses, conspiracy, and forgery.
Now it’s time for sentencing in front of Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Hala Jarbou.
“I think I read somewhere that there’s an indication that the detectives were able to identify more than 100 victims," the judge said.
Yeah, John Floyd’s a bad guy and he gets a big sentence - four and a half to 15 years with the Michigan Department of Corrections.
Not only that but he has to pay even more restitution to his victims.
“You’ll pay restitution in the amount of $93,748.29," the judge said.
Good luck getting that money. He still owes money from old cases as well. He was ordered to pay back Lisa $100,000 in a case 10 years ago and he sure hasn’t.
“He’s a true conman," Lisa said.
And his now ex -wife Stephanie agrees.
“If he gets out here in four, five or six years, he’s just going to do it again," Stephanie said. "He’s proven that he’s done it already again, to me, he’s done it before, and I’m sure he’s going to stay on the same track and probably do it 10 times worse, and have 200 victims next time.”
And remember, it all started with one victim, Danny, and the Fox 2 Hall of Shame.
“Getting this out there I knew that more folks would come forward and we could put a stop to it," Danny said. "That’s what my goal was, to put a stop to it, this guy can’t go around thinking he can take people’s money and just hang on to it.”
After court, John Floyd's attorney handed me this handwritten note from John. Here's what it says:
"I appreciate FOX 2 for providing me an opportunity to apologize to those victims impacted by my mismanagement of client funds for which I pled guilty to. I will pay my debt to society, pay any and all court ordered restitution and court cost.
"Upon my release, I look forward to contributing to the well-being of the communities in which I live and work."
By the way he pleaded guilty to forgery, false pretenses and conspiracy - not mismanagement of anything.