A Mt. Pleasant coin and jewelry trader is in the Isabella County Jail, accused of taking money from customers meant for the purchase of precious metals and gambling away more than $5 million.
Matthew Joseph Burton, 52, owner of Jack of All Trades in Mt. Pleasant, was charged Monday in Isabella County Trial Court with one count of false pretenses $100,000 or more, a 20-year felony; one count of false pretenses between $20,000 and $50,000, a 15-year felony; false pretenses between $1,000 and $20,000, a 5-year felony; and false pretenses between $50,000 and $100,000, a 15-year felony.
Burton faces a preliminary hearing in Isabella County Trial Judge Sara Spencer-Noggle’s Mt. Pleasant courtroom Oct. 3 at 11:30 p.m. and is being held on bonds ranging between $100,000 and $125,000.
Burton was the target of investigations by state police from the Mt. Pleasant post, the Isabella County Sheriff’s Office, Mt. Pleasant Police and Bay City Police after numerous customers filed complaints, alleging Burton did not honor purchase agreements.
In the most serious charge, state police said in an affidavit to support a criminal complaint that Burton took $127,000 from a customer in January 2023 for the purchase of gold and silver, and, acting as a middleman, left Michigan more than a year later without providing the customer with the precious metals.
A state trooper contacted Burton, who said the gold market was “tight and he was waiting for his supplier to provide the metal,” according to court records.
During his investigation, the trooper learned that “the gold supply was high, and the wait was unreasonable.”
Police believe Burton was using the money to gamble at the Soaring Eagle Casino, and “a look into Matthew Burton’s Soaring Eagle Casino Player’s Card suggests that Matthew is using the money from the pawn shop gold sales to gamble with,” according to court records.
Burton allegedly put a total of $5,188,046.04 into slot machines, according to the affidavit.
An investigation by the Isabella County Sheriff’s Office that resulted in the false pretenses between $50,000 and $100,000 charge, Burton is accused of taking $70,337 in July 2022 from a customer to buy gold coins, but provided the man with $10,000 worth, telling him it would be “several weeks” before the remainder of the gold would come in, according to court records.
After the customer returned to complain, Burton allegedly first wrote a receipt to show the amount owed, then in January 2023 wrote the man a check for $60,000 that bounced, according to court records.
An Isabella County Sheriff’s detective questioned Burton, who said gold was “hard to come by” and that the check was “collateral” that wasn’t intended to be cashed, saying there was a misunderstanding.
In June 2023 the alleged victim returned to the sheriff’s office to say he had not heard from Burton, nor had he received his money or gold, according to the criminal complaint.
Two customers filed complaints investigated by the Mt. Pleasant Police Department in November 2023 that resulted in the false pretenses between $20,000 and $50,000 charge.
After giving Burton a check for $20,000 for the purchase of silver; Burton allegedly told the two it would take 10 days for the check to clear and he’d need an additional few weeks to obtain the silver, according to court documents.
In December 2023, one of the alleged victims tried to finalize the purchase but could not reach Burton when he didn’t answer his phone and the voice mail box was full, according to court records.
In January, one of the victims returned to Jack of All Trades, telling investigators that Burton said “things were slow due to world conflict including the Israel war,” and contacted another silver seller who indicated it should only take five to seven days to obtain $20,000 in silver, according to the complaint.
In the investigation that led to the false pretenses between $1,000 and $20,000 charge, a Mt. Pleasant Police sergeant said in an affidavit that an alleged victim went to Jack of All Trades in January with 77 coins to sell them for cash, and received a check for $1,432 from an employee after getting the transaction approved by Burton, but the check bounced.
Burton allegedly told the man repeatedly that he would get the money to him, the deadlines continued to pass without hearing from Burton or getting his money, according to court records.
Police tried several times to talk to Burton but Jack of All Trades was closed, and attempts to contact him by phone failed because the voice mail box was not set up and police could not leave a message, according to the affidavit.
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