Florida man gets prison for Michigan campaign signature fraud scheme

Kara Berg, The Detroit News on Mar 31, 2026

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MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — A Florida man has been sentenced to spend at least two years in prison for his role in a signature fraud scheme that kept the names of multiple judicial and gubernatorial candidates off the August 2022 primary ballot in Michigan.

Willie Reed was sentenced Tuesday to two to 15 years in prison and will have to pay more than $333,000 in restitution to Perry Johnson's campaign strategist and candidates Ryan Kelley, James Craig and Michael Markey, but he will not have to serve the sentence until his appeal works its way through the courts.

Reed was found guilty Feb. 9 of forging or allowing the forgery of signatures on nominating petitions and defrauding the August 2022 Republican gubernatorial campaigns of Johnson, Craig and Markey. He also was convicted of stealing from Kelley's gubernatorial campaign.

His co-defendant, Shawn Wilmoth, was sentenced to four to 20 years in prison for similar acts. Wilmoth's wife, Jamie Wilmoth, was acquitted of all charges.

Assistant Attorney General Chris Kessel said at the start of the trial Jan. 28 that the Wilmoths and Reed own businesses that hire people to collect signatures that allow candidates for public office to get their names put on the ballot.

He said they allowed for the falsification of signatures on these nominating petitions, as 68% of the citizen signatures submitted to the state Board of Electors were found to be false.

Reed was convicted of one count of conducting a criminal enterprise, three counts of election law forgery, two counts of false pretense of $100,000 or more, two counts of false pretenses over $50,000, one counts of false pretenses over $20,000, four counts of using a computer to commit fraud and one count of larceny between $1,000 and $20,000.

Reed was found not guilty of five counts of election fraud, one count of false pretense of $100,000 or more, two counts of false pretenses over $20,000, and five counts of using a computer to commit fraud.

Reed maintained his innocence Tuesday, but told Maceroni he was "very sorry for everything that happened."

"You've got to take responsibility for things that happen on your watch," Reed said. "I didn't do it, I know in my heart of hearts I feel like I didn't do anything ... but I will say I'm sorry for what happened. It never should have got this far. I should have come up here and been more involved. I trusted somebody else to do the job and now I'm here."

Blake said he did not think Reed's criminal intent to defraud was proven.

"I think this is more so a situation of negligence, to which my client was overwhelmed at the last-minute flurry of individuals seeking to be elected, or at least get on the ballot," Blake said, noting the signature-collecting industry is unregulated and there is no way to vet who is working for companies. "It needs to change. I think my client is a victim of that."

Macomb Circuit Court Judge James Maceroni allowed Reed to be released on bond pending his appeal because of the "unusual" nature of the case.

Gubenatorial candidate Johnson wrote in a victim impact statement read by Assistant Attorney General Chris Kessel that this was the single most traumatizing experience in his life. He said the "ramifications have been devastating."

"Our system of government is based on fair competition," Johnson said. "As much as I have suffered, it’s the voters of Michigan who have suffered the most. ... Every voter in this state was a victim of their fraud."

Maceroni spent several minutes speaking about how lawmakers may need to examine the process to get on a ballot. He noted if every candidate was paying someone to gather signatures for them, he did not know if getting a certain amount of signatures made someone more or less appropriate to be on the ballot.

He also emphasized that this fraud did not have anything to do with President Donald Trump and others' claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

"This was an operation motivated by financial reasons, not political reasons, nor did it have anything to do with invalid votes," Maceroni said.

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