GRAND RAPIDS, MI (WHTC) – A trusted family member and community leader who admitted betraying that trust will learn his fate today.
Robert Haveman pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and money laundering charges stemming from allegations that he took over 16 million dollars from the trust fund of the widow of Prince Corporation founder Edgar Prince. He was the president of a management firm in Holland and served as the investor for philanthropist Elsa Prince Broekhuizen and her living trust when prosecutors claim that he used the trust as “his own personal piggy bank” for various failed schemes and expenses over a 16-year period. It is believed that at least 50 million dollars that would have gone to charitable causes were lost as a result.
Haveman, who has no past criminal record and has worked with authorities in the matter, has nearly 50 pages of written support for him that have been submitted to the US District Courthouse in Grand Rapids. Judge Robert Holmes Bell will hand down his sentence today, with advisory guidelines calling for Haveman to serve, at the least, between six and eight years in prison.
