The former vice president and general manager of the Wilmington Sharks baseball team is serving time in federal prison for conspiring to commit financial fraud.
Curt VanDerzee, 41, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering in February 2009.
VanDerzee was involved with the Wilmington Sharks since the team’s inception in 1997. According to a report from the Wilmington Sharks website, VanDerzee was general manager of the Sharks for the first four years, left the organization in 2001 and returned in 2003. He served as vice president and general manager for another year, but resigned from the Sharks and the Coastal Plain League in August 2004.
On March 15, U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle sentenced VanDerzee to one year in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Boyle ordered him to pay more than $520,000 in restitution.
Together, VanDerzee and co-conspirator Daniel Ostby, 41, who was sentenced in September, charged more than $1 million dollars on credit cards obtained for fraudulent business from 2007 to 2009. According to a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman, VanDerzee and Ostby used the money for personal salaries, expenses and payments (see related story).
They built a scheme to “flip” houses for profit where they formed more than 17 businesses with family members and acquaintances. Since the business has no source of income, the men obtained credit cards and credit lines with various banks for money, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman.
A report from the U.S. District Court on the VanDerzee’s sentencing lists a total of 12 banks that suffered financial loss as a result of VanDerzee’s schemes. Of the 12 banks, Citibank endured the greatest loss at more than $188,000.
VanDerzee is serving his sentence at The United States Penitentiary – Canaan in Pennsylvania, and is expected to serve one year in prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
He is scheduled to be released March 14, 2013.
