Andrew Funches AKA Ty Fortner AKA Drew Fortner AKA Logan Zander AKA Don Charles Andrew Tyler Grey Fletcher

Women seek prosecution of Andrew Funches
Authorities say they can’t take action

In February 2012, Tamara White received a phone call from a woman in Chicago.

“This is really difficult,” she began, haltingly. “But does the name Ty Fortner mean anything to you?”

White instantly knew what the call was about another woman had a problem with Andrew Funches. It turned out that Andrew Funches, AKA Ty Fortner, AKA Drew Fortner, AKA Logan Zander, AKA multiple other aliases, had a long history of defrauding women. They finally started finding each other via the Internet and comparing notes.

Funches met women through dating websites. He used the I-owe-money-to-the-mob story to pry funds out of at least four different women. He told others that they were investing in an insurance business in Florida or South America. Then, when women started resisting his pleas for cash, Funches subjected them to emotionally abusive phone calls and text messages.

Several more women had sued Funches for their money. And, he listed four women as creditors when he filed for bankruptcy on September 7, 2007. Official records, therefore, indicate that Funches owes money to 10 different women:

Women scammed by Andrew Funches

In addition to these women, at least a dozen more lost money to Funches/Fortner, but did not take legal action.

Writing to officials about Funches

For Tamara White, the worst part about hearing from the other victims was realizing that filing a legal case against Funches/Forter had no impact.

“I tried so hard to make this not happen by taking him to court,” White said. “Then five people telling me they lost $70,000 I was so upset.”

So White tried again. With the cooperation of the other women, White sent a letter to Lisa Madigan, Illinois Attorney General. Copies were sent to the attorneys general of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nevada. The letter stated, in part:

Fortner/Funches systematically defrauds women of money using premeditated postings on dating websites, false names, jobs, businesses and mistruths followed by emotionally abusive language, texting, phone calls and other harassing behaviors such as filing false Stalking Reports or Restraining Orders with the local police department and composing and posting defaming profiles on the Internet. To date Fortner/Funches has defrauded approximately 18 citizens of Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, California and other states (as well as at least one citizen in London, England) in excess of $250,000.

A criminal case/investigation was opened on January 1, 2012 with the charge of Theft by Deceptive Practices and Working Under a False Identity with the Area 5, Chicago Police Department, at the request of one of the defrauded citizens. The investigation was dropped in late February 2012; the Chicago Police Department representatives stated that they did not have sufficient evidence to make a case based on those charges.

We are making a direct appeal to you, as the chief protector of consumers in our state, to direct attention to this matter. To date, none of the dozens of civil cases, calls to police, reports to websites about this online predator, etc. have managed to stop ‘Ty Andrew Fortner,’ aka Andrew Lee Funches, from systematically and repeatedly stealing from the citizens of Illinois.

Government replies

Each of the state governments responded to the letter. Hiram Grau, Director of the Illinois State Police, wrote:

Inspector Michael McCotter, Illinois State Police Zone 1 Investigations, reviewed your correspondence and contacted the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to discuss your concerns. Inspector McCotter concluded that the case appeared to be a civil matter, since funds were willingly given or loaned to Mr. Fortner. However, if you have additional evidence of criminal activity on the part of Mr. Fortner, I encourage you to report this information to the CPD. New evidence may be added to any information which was previously obtained by the CPD in reference to your allegations and could be sufficient to support criminal charges.

The attorneys general of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nevada all replied that they did not have the legal authority to investigate Funches/Fortner directly, because investigations were the jurisdiction of local police, sheriffs and district attorneys. There wasn’t anything they could do.

“We need to stop him”

White eventually found that Funches had a new job, and this year she successfully filed another wage garnishment.

“Andrew Funches knows what he’s doing is wrong,” she says. “He knows the kinds of things to say, knows how to badger, he’s very good at acting, very good at panic-stricken kinds of comments.”

White believes Funches will never stop his behavior on his own. So she keeps pressing, even though every time she goes to court it costs her thousands of dollars. “I pursued the case to stop him,” she said. “It’s not about the money. We need to stop him.”