When Image Management Replaces Accountability – Fraud Files Blog

Brett LaChappelle wants you to believe he is a certified life coach, a devoted community servant, and a man of faith. His websites describe him as a recreation superintendent, a church leader, a volunteer, and even a hurricane relief worker. If you search his name online, you’ll find several websites devoted to him, all linking to each other, and creating the illusion of credibility.

But these glossy profiles leave out a crucial fact: Brett LaChappelle is a convicted thief and fraudster with a decades-long history of stealing from those who trusted him.

The Self-Written Fairy Tale

In his self-published bio, Brett highlights his time as recreation superintendent for the City of Two Rivers, boasting about boosting youth sports donations and adult league participation. What he doesn’t mention is that in that very role, he committed the crimes that got him charged with 37 felonies… stealing more than $20,000 from the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Brett is a convicted felon.

Police reports show that he doctored receipts, misused city funds, and admitted that his crimes weren’t about need, but about “gluttony and greed.” He confessed he knew what he was doing and expected to be caught.

None of that makes it into his carefully crafted life story.

Reputation Laundering 101

Brett isn’t the first person with a criminal record to try rewriting his past online. By creating multiple websites on free platforms, interlinking them, and filling them with praise for himself, he’s attempting to bury the truth beneath a digital smokescreen.

This practice is sometimes called reputation laundering. The goal is simple: push the truth down in search results, and replace it with a sanitized version that hides the harm he has caused.

In Brett’s case, the harm is significant. He has stolen from family, friends, elderly relatives, churches, employers, and taxpayers. Victims rarely pressed charges in the past, which allowed him to keep moving on to his next target.

Why the Truth Still Matters

Online image manipulation might fool a search engine, but it should not fool the public. People considering a “life coach.” Churches welcoming a “volunteer.” Employers trusting a “supervisor.” They deserve to know the real story, not the fairy tale Brett wrote about himself.

The truth is documented in court filings, police interviews, and sentencing records. Brett LaChappelle pleaded no contest to four felonies in 2022, admitted his thefts were driven by greed, and served probation instead of prison time. That is the real record, not the self-promotion spread across flimsy online biographies.

Image vs. Integrity

Brett wants you to believe that image is everything. But integrity is not something you can Photoshop or publish into existence.

The truth is that Brett LaChappelle is not a trusted life coach. He is a convicted fraudster who has spent decades betraying trust. His digital cover-up is just another layer of deception in a lifetime full of them.