Two Detroit men are accused of forming fraudulent companies with the names of existing Oakland County businesses to ransom and harass the owners, according to a lawsuit filed by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office to try to dissolve the companies.
Eric Vander Ley and his brother, Daniel Vander Ley, both of Detroit, allegedly took advantage of companies that were either using a different name than their limited liability company was registered under — like Found Sound music store in Ferndale, whose LLC was My Turn Records Inc. — or that were not in good standing with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs because they did not file an annual statement for the company, according to the Attorney General’s office.
The Vander Leys “swept in to capture the business name” when companies were not in good standing or created an LLC with the assumed name of the business, according to the Attorney General’s office’s June 12 filing in Wayne County Circuit Court. The civil lawsuit seeks to dissolve 17 LLCs “procured by fraud” to claim false intellectual property rights in business names, according to the office of Attorney General Dana Nessel…