TULSA, Okla. — A former Grand Lake man on probation for defrauding millions of dollars from banks, businesses, family and friends is back in federal custody.
Michael Chase Morris, 60, of Tulsa, is in federal custody for violating his probation on bank fraud and three counts of making false statements on real estate loan applications. A revocation hearing was held on Friday and sentencing is set for March 24 before U.S. District Judge Claire V. Eagan, online records show.
Also known as Michael Jeffrey Morris, the former Grove man’s current probation violations stem from Morris allegedly opening 22 lines of credit, according to a Feb. 24 detention order.
Evidence presented at the revocation hearing suggests that Morris made false statements to a bank for the purpose of obtaining a loan, submitted six credit card applications with a reported income totaling more than he reported to his probation officer, and for failure to make restitution payments.
In the request to revoke Morris’ probation for the current charges, officials say Morris shows a pattern of non-compliance and explains that he was revoked seven times for past federal cases. That alone was enough for U.S. Attorney Charles McLoughlin, who has prosecuted Morris since 1997, to call Morris a “white-collar sociopath” at his 2016 sentencing hearing, according to published reports.
Morris was sentenced to a six and a half year prison term in 2016, and ordered to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution. He was released from federal custody on Jan. 18, 2022, according to online records.
The two-page detention order states Morris “poses a danger of ongoing financial fraud and an economic danger to the community in the form of obtaining money from the public or banks on false pretenses.”
Federal prosecutors say Morris submitted credit applications to Synchrony Bank on May 2, July 1, September 7, September 30, November 29, and November 30, 2022, listing his income as $111,996 to $181,992, according to a 92-page petition for an arrest warrant.
He reported on his monthly report forms to the probation office that his income is $3,750 and he has submitted one earnings statement which showed his gross income was $1,625, the warrant states.
Officials say a search of Morris’s office turned up checks for ten different bank accounts, incorporation documents for an LLC, and numerous credit cards and gift cards of which the probation office wasn’t aware.
Morris is also accused of running a website that has a “donation” button that goes to his PayPal account.
Court documents show Morris took an earnings statement from LifeStream Resources, which bills itself as a religious institution that promotes church growth, ministry partnerships and church planning and development.
Sources close to the investigation said Morris is behind LifeStream Resources and attempted to fraudulently take money from churches and ministries.
LifeStream Resources’ Facebook page states the organization began “as a part of a sixteen church and ministry group that produced and assisted with programming needs from media and video solutions to the planning and preparation of growth and missions programs.”
Morris’s questionable charity operations are not new.
He was accused of shady practices in connection with the Chase Morris Foundation, a charity he founded in the name of his late 16-year-old son who died in 2013 from Sudden Cardiac Arrest.
Several family members publicly said or testified at Morris’s 2016 federal sentencing, that he used his deceased son’s name to raise money to travel and stay in luxury hotels on the pretense of holding events raising awareness for Sudden Cardiac Arrest.
