Owner of Mid-West Choppers was building a custom tribute bike for the 9-11 Foundation. Now he could face 30 years in prison.

Chip Miyler is accused of swindling customers out of about $900,000. A federal indictment issued this week charges Miyler with five counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of bank fraud.
Three years ago, the owner of Mid-West Choppers was building a custom tribute bike for the 9-11 Foundation. Now he could face 30 years in prison.
Six years ago, Chip Miyler invited WQAD news cameras into his Galesburg shop and told us opening Mid-West Choppers was a dream come true."Build one $1500 bike a month, man, wouldn't that be great?," he said in 2002, a year after the shop opened. "We don't even build bikes like that anymore. Ours are $25 thousand and up."In 2005, his shop got national attention when it was honored with the job of creating a tribute bike for the 9-11 Foundation ."They could have picked anybody in the country, but they chose us," he said at the time.Two months later, Mid-West Choppers suddlenly shut down and filed for bankruptcy.The FBI says dozens of very angry customers were left holding the bag.According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Miyler took hundreds of thousands of dollars in downpayments from customers between 2003 and 2005. The indictment says he defrauded 25 customers who ordered custom-built bikes and diverted the money for his personal use.The indictment also charges Miyler lied about collateral when he applied for a bank loan in October of 2005.If convicted, bank fraud carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
Mail and wire fraud charges stem from payments collected from customers by mail and wire transfer. Each of those charges carries a maxium penalty of 20 years in prison.