(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/28/2023) A married couple who are both seeking the 13th District House seat say their last 30 years as productive citizens show they are more than the criminal convictions that sent them to prison in the 1990s.
Suzanne Latour Ostosh, a Democratic candidate, was convicted in January 1997 and sentenced to 18 months in prison for fraudulent bank transfers. Her husband, the Rev. Curtiss Ostosh, a Republican candidate, spent about 13 months in prison for forging his paternal grandparents’ signatures on two checks totaling $84,312.
Today, the Ostoshes run the Harvest Time Christian Fellowship, a Christian-based food pantry that offers other free services to the poor. On Tuesdays and Fridays, it gives out food for 600 families. Sunday and Wednesdays are Fellowship days, where dinner is prepared for those who attend their services.
“I do think everyone has a past and I think going forward over the last 30 years I’ve proven myself,” Suzanne Ostosh said. “… I feel what we do speaks for itself. We feed almost 7,000 people a month through our little pantry.”
The couple ran into trouble over separate incidents. Both believe they got a raw deal from the legal system.
Suzanne Ostosh blamed her criminal conviction on an abusive ex-husband, whom she claimed wrote out “$950,000 worth of checks” from her account without permission.
“That left the account short,” she told MIRS. “I didn’t write the checks and I didn’t authorize them and the banks were bigger than we were or bigger than I was.”
Back then, she was named Suzanne Latour Bischoff.
According to the 1997 indictment, she and her then-husband, Michael Bischoff, owned and operated Pizza One Inc. franchises in Michigan.
The company had accounts at First of America and NBD Bank, which were closed in fall 1993.
The couple – who were indicted on 19 counts – were accused of conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud for transferring more than $19.2 million from two closed business accounts to their open Comerica account using Comerica’s software program, according to the indictment.
Suzanne Ostosh said that figure is not accurate.
Due to delays in electronic banking, Comerica didn’t know the transfers were from closed accounts until five days after the transaction, which allowed the couple to withdraw money. In all, the government said, the couple was able to withdraw $673,135, and a Detroit Free Press article at the time quoted Comerica as saying its losses were $953,617.
The Reverend was sentenced in 1994 to 15 months in prison for two counts of bank fraud in the 1990s. The indictment alleged Curtiss Ostosh deposited a $19,312 check payable to his now-deceased grandfather and a $65,000 check made payable to his grandmother in 1992.
Curtiss Ostosh said the ordeal was, as his grandfather described, “a family affair and it was bullshit” because his parents wanted to ensure that they inherited his grandfather’s sizable estate. To accomplish their goal, he said his parents also were accused of various crimes, including assault and battery, in state court.
The state court charges were either dismissed or he was acquitted, Curtiss Ostosh said. The only accusation that stuck was the federal bank fraud charges and that went to a jury who wasn’t allowed to hear his grandfather testify that the checks weren’t fraud because the judge kicked him out for calling the situation “bullshit.”
Prison, Curtiss Ostosh said, “is the price I paid for the care of my grandfather, whom I loved dearly. … I never realized what I did would lead to criminal charges.”
The couple both said they’ve spent the last 30 years living crime-free, productive and honorable lives giving back to their community.
“Everybody has a past and everyone has a future,” Suzanne Ostosh said. “And I just want to make my future count to help many people.”
Curtiss Ostosh, along with Warren police officer Brandon Cumbee and Ronald Singer, the latter of whom ran unsuccessfully against former Rep. Lori Stone, who is now mayor, in 2022, seek the Republican nomination for the Warren-based 13th District House seat.
Suzanne Ostosh is running for the Democratic nomination against Macomb Commissioner Mai Xiong and former Rep. LaMar Lemmons III.
