A Holland financial advisor is being charged with bilking Elsa D. Prince-Broekhuizen out of more than $16 million, according to felony information filed today in federal court.
The widow of billionaire industrialist Edgar D. Prince and mother of former Michigan GOP chair Betsy DeVos was swindled over the span of 16 years, according to the six-page felony information filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.
Robert Allen Haveman is charged with wire fraud and money laundering. Court documents say he obtained more than $16.2 million through wire fraud.
The money was siphoned from Prince-Broekhuizen and the Elsa S. Prince Living Trust, according to court documents.
Under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Haveman will plead guilty as charged and pay restitution. He's already paid back $2.6 million to the Elsa S. Prince Living Trust.
Haveman, 67, is president of EDP Management Co. LLC in Holland, which he started in 1997. The Holland company managed investments for Prince-Broekhuizen and the Elsa D. Prince Living trust.
Haveman is accused of using at least $1 million of Prince-Broekhuizen’s money as partial payment on land along Olive Shore Avenue in Ottawa County’s Port Sheldon Township. He's agreed to transfer ownership of the lakefront lot, valued at $1.6 million, to the trust fund.
Haveman also has to sell a 2005 Chevy Corvette 30 days before sentencing and a 2008 Lexus no later than 30 days after he is sentenced, with the proceeds used for restitution, the plea agreement states.
His retirement trust and a 401k account are also fair game, according to the plea agreement.
In exchange for his guilty pleas, the government will let Haveman keep four parcels in Ottawa County, a time-share condominium in Colorado and his stake in a turkey processing operation.
The government has also agreed to sentencing guidelines that call for a prison term of between 70 and 87 months, the plea agreement states. Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison while money laundering carries a 10-year penalty.
Starting in Jan. 1999, Haveman transferred money into his own personal account, using it for personal expenses and investments, the federal information states. The government accuses him of cooking company books to hide the fraud.
More than $500,000 was also transferred from a private energy company in Billings, Montana into Haveman’s personal account at Huntington National Bank, court records show.
Prince-Broekhuizen was married to Prince Corp. founder Edgar Prince, who died in 1995. The couple had four children, including Betsy DeVos and former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince. Elsa Prince remarried in 2000.
