Fraud Friday – Timber! A Log Brokerage Business’ Fake Numbers Doom Company, Executive and Bank
June 14, 2013
By Bob Coleman
Editor, Coleman Report
Today’s fraudster was cooking the books as an executive of a Virginia log brokerage company. His guilty plea last week to bank fraud will earn him a sentence between 12 and 60 months for inflating the values of his company’s accounts receivable and inventory on borrower certification statements to SunTrust Bank.
The bank lost almost $2 million in the “scheme.”
Writes The Roanoke Times:
The company operated with the help of a $2.8 million commercial loan from SunTrust Bank in Roanoke, the charges said. Under its terms, the bank checked the company’s outstanding loan balance and any requests for more money against a monthly report of company assets, including the value of accounts receivable and inventory. In a scheme to get more money, however, Lester and a company controller who worked at his direction submitted false asset reports, the charges said.
He will learn his fate in September.