http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/12/first-security-trust-worker-sentenced-to-63-months-for-fraud.html
This man took nothing, all he tried to do was to help people.
He did this for about 5 years, and they've managed to trace everyone of those transactions.
Isn't it about time "We" expected the same intense scrutiny of the Investment banks, since it's been made so obvious by the government that it can be done?
Or does the government only think it's the high school graduates that need to be checked?
First Security Trust & Savings Bank loan officer Jeffrey Gonsiewski, pleaded guilty in August to one count of federal bank fraud, was sentenced to 63 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo on Tuesday.
The U.S. Government last summer had accused the 56-year-old high school graduate of changing loan terms or arranging loans to be made in a scheme that ultimately caused the Elmwood Park-based lender, part of the Wirtz family empire, to lose more than $5.5 million.
Some monies have since been recovered, so Gonsiewski now has been ordered to pay nearly $5.2 million in restitution. On Jan. 20 he’ll report to a still-unspecified prison.
Gonsiewski had admitted that he changed the terms of at least 100 loans for more than 50 struggling borrowers to make it appear that their payments were current when in fact they were overdue. He’d change due dates to a later time period, or monthly payments to quarterly ones, or principal-and-interest payments to interest-only payments.
At least once, he wrote off $100,000 in interest owed by one borrower. Or he’d loan more money even when the borrowers didn’t have sufficient collateral.
Besides “motive is not a factor to be considered” during sentencing, Stern said to the judge. “The fact he did this, whatever the motive, he had no respect for the law.”
