Bank Fraud

A federal grand jury has brought additional charges against a Ventura man accused of conspiring to swindle several banks and private investors out of nearly $3 million, the FBI reported Friday. Patrick Michael Downey, 42, will face nine felony counts for his alleged involvement in a real estate scheme that began in October, 1989, and continued until June, 1992, under a new indictment handed up Thursday.

A 47-year-old Northridge man was sentenced Monday to six months in prison for defrauding a Santa Clarita bank of $133,050. U. S. District Court Judge J. Spencer Letts also ordered Gerald Joseph Cucco to pay back now-defunct Santa Clarita National Bank, which is owned by Bank of America. He also is to serve five years probation.

An Orange County businessman's bank fraud conviction was overturned Wednesday by a federal appeals court because of the trial judge's refusal to let the defense remove a prospective juror. The appellate court said Ronald Fauria, vice president of Orange Coast Title Co., is entitled to a new trial. Co-defendant Robert Annigoni's conviction was overturned on the same grounds last September by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

A federal jury convicted the four top leaders of the anti-government Montana "freemen" Wednesday of engaging in a gigantic conspiracy against the nation's banking system. The panel said it was hopelessly deadlocked, however, on the remaining eight defendants and other counts in the indictment. LeRoy Schweitzer, Daniel Petersen, Dale Jacobi and Russell Landers were convicted of a conspiracy to defraud four banks in what prosecutors said was a massive assault on the U.S. banking system.

Federal prosecutors moved to put Enron Corp. founder Kenneth L. Lay on trial by this summer for bank fraud charges. In a court filing, prosecutors argued that it would be in the public interest for Lay to be tried soon on charges that he lied to banks about using loans to buy Enron stock on margin. A sweeping conspiracy and fraud case against Lay, former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey K. Skilling and former top accountant Richard A. Causey is scheduled for January.

U.S. District Judge Jerome Turner recessed Rep. Harold E. Ford's bank fraud trial in Memphis after the Democratic congressman complained of chest pains and was taken to a hospital. Ford, 47, Tennessee's only African-American member of Congress, sought a new jury after only one black had been selected for the jury that was seated. The Justice Department sided with him, but the judge ruled that the trial proceed with the current jury.

A federal appeals court has reinstated bank fraud charges against Long Beach developer Craig E. Caldwell. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Caldwell should face a 12-count indictment stemming from his chairmanship of the Western National Bank in Santa Ana. He held the position from 1981 until the bank was closed by federal regulators in August, 1982. The ruling overturns a decision by U.S.

An Orange County accountant and a Los Angeles lawyer have been sentenced to federal prison for defrauding an Illinois bank of $1.5 million, authorities in Los Angeles said Wednesday. Accountant George West Munz, 56, of San Clemente was sentenced July 6 to 21 months imprisonment and ordered to repay $968,646 to the Rock Island Bank, Assistant U.S. Atty. Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced. Perry G.