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Mike Wing

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Mike Wing
Born1959 or 1960 (age 64–65)
Occupation(s)author, baseball and basketball coach
Conviction(s)wire fraud[1][2] parole violation

Michael James Wing (born 1960), commonly "Mike Wing", is an American author of Talking With Your Customers: What They Will Tell You About Your Business,[3] convicted of wire fraud and implicated in other scandals, and a sports coach.[2]

Biography[edit]

Early career[edit]

Wing worked as a White House Fellow from 1992 to 1993 during his time at Gordon College.[4][5] In 1993, Dearborn Financial Publishing of Chicago printed his book Talking With Your Customers: What They Will Tell You About Your Business, and Arthur Andersen signed on to another printing in 1997.[3][6]

Wing cast a shadow of debt over the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and erected a unique landmark.

U.S. Space and Rocket Center[edit]

Wing served as executive director of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center from 1998 to 1999, where he plunged the center into debt.[7] Wing oversaw construction of a full-scale vertical Saturn V replica to be finished at by the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, July 1999. It serves as a towering landmark in Huntsville, and cost the center $8.6 million of borrowed money. The Huntsville Times estimated interest costs at $10 million. Wing also sought to create a program for fifth grade students in Alabama and elsewhere to attend Space Camp at no cost to them. Anonymous corporate pledges that Wing promised would fund the $800 per student never arrived. Wing prolonged the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission's investigation into the pledges by writing bogus personal checks and having the center record them as received. The program ultimately cost the center $7.5 million. Wing was pressured to resign, and several members of the governing Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission were ousted from that board as a result of the debacle.[8][9] At the end of Wing's term as director, the center was $26 million in debt.[10][11][12] The state sued Wing for $7.5 million over the Space Camp fraud. They settled for $500,000.[13]

Texas attorney[edit]

Wing's next position was as an attorney in Tyler, Texas.[14] He was licensed to practice in Texas from September 2000 until his resignation from the bar in February 2008.[15][2] Leveraging his position as attorney and the skill and trust afforded because of same, Wing offered to his victims that they could invest in bridge loans that didn't exist. Instead of a bridge loan, he used the monies from those accounts and others to pay off prior "investors" and for his own purposes. Wing resigned from the State Bar of Texas after pleading guilty to wire fraud.[2]

College sports coach[edit]

Wing served as baseball coach for LeTourneau Athletics from 2002 to 2003 while the team posted 35 wins to 47 losses.[16][17][18]

Criminal proceedings[edit]

Wing was arrested on April 12, 2006, and charged with 18 counts of wire fraud underlying a scheme to defraud investors by offering high returns on investments for bridge loans among companies which he declined to name citing insider trading rules. He pleaded guilty to at least one count of wire fraud and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, 3 years of probation, and $9.2 million ($12.98 million in current dollars) in restitution. He was released from prison on probation in 2014.[14][4][2]

In 2017, Wing was sentenced to 6 months in prison for a parole violation brought on by taking out loans without informing parole officers.[4]

High school coach[edit]

Wing took a job as coach at Ranier High School in 2016,[19] and left that job on account of a parole violation 14 months later.[20]

In 2019, Wing took a position as and then resigned as coach from coaching baseball at remote rural Idaho West Jefferson High School where he had pledged to raise millions for a baseball complex while having 13 players on the team.[4][21]

Published works[edit]

Wing wrote the book Talking with Your Customers: What They Will Tell You about Your Business when You Ask the Right Questions published by Enterprise Dearborn in 1993.[3] A 1997 edition had input from Arthur Andersen and added information about the internet.[22]

References and notes[edit]

  1. ^ "EDTX_WING083007-Wire Fraud". U.S. Justice Department. 2012-01-15. Archived from the original on 2012-01-15. Retrieved 2022-04-06.,
  2. ^ a b c d e "Disciplinary Actions" (PDF). Texas Bar Journal. 71 (4): 321. 2008-04-01 [April 2008].
  3. ^ a b c "Talking with Your Customers: What They Will Tell You about Your Business when You Ask the Right Questions Michael J. Wing - Google Search". google.com. Retrieved 2022-04-12.
  4. ^ a b c d Bodkin, Devin (2019-06-07). "Coach with criminal past proposes multimillion-dollar athletic complex". Idaho Education News. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  5. ^ "Gordon College List of White House Fellows". Archived from the original on 2019-11-30.
  6. ^ Wing, Michael J (1993). Talking with your customers: what they will tell you about your business when you ask the right questions. Dearbon. OCLC 222952607. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  7. ^ "Mike Wing, former CEO of Space and Rocket Center, arrested". WAFF TV. Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  8. ^ "Saturn V Replica Not Paid For Yet". Tuscaloosa News. AP. July 17, 2001. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  9. ^ "Audit Sparks Probe of Center Spending". Tuscaloosa News. Montgomery, AL. AP. May 14, 2001. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  10. ^ Haskins, Shelly (September 30, 2011). "U.S. Space and Rocket Center lays off 5, cuts 7 to part-time to save $500,000 (updated)". Huntsville Times. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  11. ^ "New CEO Ready to Tackle Space Camp's Problems". Tuscaloosa News. Huntsville. AP. February 11, 2000. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
  12. ^ Lowry, Suzy (June 24, 1999). "St. Clair Fifth-Graders get Free Space Camp". Gadsden Times. Asheville. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
  13. ^ Hart, Joshua (April 11, 2016). "School board approves hiring of baseball coach Mike Wing". Longview Daily News. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
  14. ^ a b "Former CEO of Alabama facility accused of fraud in Texas". Plainview Herald. 2006-04-13. Retrieved 2022-04-22.
  15. ^ "Michael James Wing". www.texasbar.com. State Bar of Texas. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  16. ^ "Mike Wing - Baseball Coach". LeTourneau University Athletics. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  17. ^ "Baseball Coaching Records". LeTourneau University Athletics. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  18. ^ Niesse, Mark (2002-03-24). "Debt, Low Attendance Weigh Down Space Camp". Washington Post. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  19. ^ Hart, Joshua (2016-04-09). "The case for Coach Wing". Longview Daily News. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  20. ^ [email protected], Jason Leskiw (2017-06-21). "Rainier coach Mike Wing sentenced to 6 months for parole violation". Longview Daily News. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  21. ^ Bodkin, Devin (2019-10-03). "Former convict resigns as West Jefferson baseball coach". Idaho Education News. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  22. ^ "The Arthur Andersen Guide to Talking with Your Customers: What They Will Tell You about Your Business (When You Ask the Right Questions) Michael J. Wing - Google Search". google.com. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
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