Though his actions were sleazy in the extreme and hurt a lot of people, including some he was ostensibly close to, you've just got to hand it to Joshua Matthew Pierce.

In a Waco federal court yesterday, Pierce, of Houston, pleaded guilty to defrauding a Waco bank, his own son-in-law and another man, two jet-leasing companies and a Waco lawyer.

According to KXXV, it all started last October, when Pierce opened a checking account at the Extraco bank in Waco. After telling them he would be wiring in $10,000 at a later date, he was able to withdraw $550 with a debit card. Pierce never made the promised wire transfer.

A month after that, Pierce took a meeting with two men, including his son-in-law Ken Lewis. (Records state that Pierce is only 30, so we're not sure how that worked unless there's a step- involved, or Pierce had a daughter at 15 who then got married herself at the same age, but anyway...)

Pierce told the men that he owned a prospering business in Kansas City, and he wanted in on a deal wherein the trio would purchase a company called Aurora Aviation at a small airport in the town of McGregor. Though he promised to wire $150,000 to cover his end of the deal, the whole meeting was a charade. Pierce just wanted to get his partners' Social Security numbers, which he used to obtain bogus credit cards.

And the roly-poly con man had only just begun...

Pierce used the fake credit cards to hop around America on corporate jets belonging to jet-leasing companies in Michigan and Arizona. The final tab for those flights came to $30,000.

Once police in the town of Robinson tracked him down, Pierce denied everything. He showed them a letter of credit which later turned out to be worthless.

And then, finally, he hired Waco attorney Guy Cox to defend him in these matters. When Cox sent him a bill, Pierce paid with a fraudulent check.

Court documents say Pierce confessed to one and all of these cases on Leap Day. He will be sentenced on July 11.

A public records search shows that Pierce got into some trouble over bad checks a few years back in Brazoria County.

Meanwhile, on his LinkedIn page, Pierce claims to be a "business consultant / CEO" of his own Pierce Global Logistics Corporation (Web site defunct), whose "aggressive management tools, strategies and practices" help him focus on "progressive techniques that improve quality and roi."

DPS records list Pierce as packing a cool 450 pounds on his six-foot fame in 2006, but on his LinkedIn page he claims to have played soccer and baseball at Ottawa University in Kansas at around the same time.

Okay, there have been some nose tackles who come close to four-and-a-half bills, and some grossly obese DHs and Carlos Lee in the majors, but soccer? Come on...Well, I guess he could be a reasonably effective goalie by just standing there and taking up space.

Which, come to think of it, is what he'll be doing for the next few years...In jail.