A construction company owner who cheated the people of Niobrara County out of roughly $200,000 when he abandoned jobs was sentenced last week to between eight and 10 years in prison, but may have his sentence reduced to probation if he pays the people back, court documents say.
Jerold Saeman, owner of Bay to Bay Concepts LLC, had pleaded guilty in August to one count of felony theft and four counts of misdemeanor theft.
District Court Judge Edward Buchanan sentenced Saeman on April 7 to between eight and 10 years on the felony count, which is nearly the maximum for that charge (9-10 years). That’s according to a proposed judgment and sentence order Niobrara County Attorney Anne Wasserburger submitted to the court after the hearing.
Saeman’s attorney Steven Titus confirmed Monday to Cowboy State daily that Wasserburger’s proposed order reflects accurately the sentence the judge gave in court.
For the four misdemeanors Buchanan sentenced Saeman to a total of two years, or 180 days per count. But that stretch is concurrent to the 8-10-year prison sentence, meaning it would unfold simultaneously to it.
Saeman owes 15 victims a total of $197,243.99, the proposed order says.
These range from an $875 reimbursement he owes one woman to a $31,284.67 bill he owes a man.
If he pays all those people back within a year of his sentencing order being filed, the judge “will, upon motion of the defendant, consider a sentence reduction that will reduce defendant’s sentence to probation,” the filing says.
He is to receive credit for five days he spent in jail.
"In speaking with most of the victims, and the community, I feel that we are happy," said Wasserburger in a Monday phone interview with Cowboy State Daily. "My position would be that it feels like justice was served, and it was appropriate."
This sentencing outcome "still gives, at least, an option to the victims to get their money back," she said. "If he doesn't (pay them back), he's going to prison for years."
Storm Chasing
Michigan-based Bay to Bay Concepts, LLC, arrived in Niobrara County in mid-July 2023 to do construction work after a severe hailstorm had blasted the area, damaging homes and buildings, says an evidentiary affidavit by DCI Special Agent John Miles, filed Nov. 20, 2024, in Lusk Circuit Court.
Numerous residents complained about the company, citing both poor construction and overbilling, the affidavit says.
The Niobrara County Sheriff’s deputy investigating the case gave people a consumer protection form to lodge their complaints with the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office. He also spoke to more than 15 people who’d had dealings with Bay to Bay.
Many of them voiced concerns as winter encroached, that Bay to Bay would not be back to finish the work for which they’d already paid, says the document.
The company had taken down payments from 11 homeowners, totaling $151,664.57, the affidavit says.
Bay to Bay had emailed and called various homeowners, promising to return in the spring of 2024 to finish the work, Miles wrote. But as of July 18, 2024, the local deputy reported that the company had not been back to the Wyoming county to finish any work.
Four more customers lodged complaints saying Bay to Bay did some work, but it was poor or improper work, the document says.
“Bay to Bay had essentially taken their money and ran,” Miles related from the residents’ complaints.
One complaint said the company had advertised in the town of Lusk that it was licensed and insured out of Michigan, but Saeman’s license had been suspended in July of 2023, wrote Miles.
Miles reviewed emails between the customers and Saeman. When people started asking for a refund, it appeared Saeman would try to have them “cancel” their orders, albeit for a 30% fee and other costs, the affidavit says.
Then he’d assure people that his company would get the job done; and he’d say that he had told his crew not to promise timeframes as they apparently had, alleges the document.
Miles on July 31, 2024, received Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reports for Saeman and Bay to Bay. The agent saw several pages of “suspicious activity reports” filed by banks, he wrote.
Back In Michigan
Miles spoke with Michigan State Police Sgt. Bryan Fuller on Aug. 27, 2024. Fuller said there were many victims in Michigan who’d complained that Bay to Bay would come in and do a few jobs, many substandard, collect money and bail from the jobs, the affidavit alleges.
After his Michigan license was suspended in 2023, Saeman appeared to go West “storm chasing,” Miles related from that discussion.
In September of 2024, Miles followed up with the alleged victims in Lusk. They said Bay to Bay never came back to finish the work, deliver materials, or issue refunds, says the affidavit.
Open Case
An agent with the Wyoming Consumer Protection and Antitrust Unit told Miles on Sept. 9, 2024, that the agency had an open case on Bay to Bay regarding the Niobrara County residents’ complaints, the document says.
But Bay to Bay didn’t give the agency civil process information, Miles related.
On Nov. 14, 2024, Fuller told Miles that he believed Saeman and Saeman’s foreman were operating in the Nashville, Tennessee area.
Wasserburger charged the theft case six days later.
Embezzlement
Ahead of Saeman’s sentencing last week, Titus submitted to the court a police report alleging that Saeman’s secretary back in Michigan had embezzled $38,432.34.
The report from Hastings Police Department, Michigan, relates that Saeman had hired the secretary knowing she had “other theft charges she had, but he wanted to give her a second chance.”
It also says that he didn’t know anything was wrong with his finances until he was in Wyoming and tried to withdraw money, only to find there was no money in his account.
The Michigan Department of Corrections inmate locator says the woman pleaded no contest to embezzlement, was sentenced on Jan. 17, 2024, to between three and 20 years in prison, and is on parole. It’s uncertain whether this embezzlement sentence is tied to Saeman’s report: it stems from activity in Kent County, Michigan rather than Barry County, where Hastings sits.
Titus said it’s his understanding that the bookkeeper stole from Saeman some of the money Wyomingites had paid Saeman during the Niobrara County construction work.
He declined to comment in addition.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
