Ex-NY bank president first accused of TARP fraud
(Reuters) - The former president of New York's privately held Park Avenue Bank
Hydraulic cylinderwas arrested on Monday on fraud charges, the first person accused of attempting to steal U.S. government bailout funds in the financial crisis.
The charges came just three days after regulators seized the bank, which had $520 million in assets.
A 10-count criminal complaint said Charles Antonucci devised "an elaborate round-trip loan transaction" that he told others was his own $6.5 million investment in Park Avenue Bank, misleading bank regulators. Antonucci made false statements in the bank's application for $11.2 million from TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the complaint.
"Antonucci is the first person ever to be charged with attempting to defraud the TARP and we expect he will not be the last," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference.
He declined to give further details of the continuing investigation, other than to say prosecutors and New York state bank regulators would be making a review of banks that appear to be having problems.
Antonucci, 59, appeared in Manhattan federal court and was released on $2 million bond. He did not enter a plea, but his lawyer said he would plead not guilty.
Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general of TARP, told the news conference that Antonucci "launched a criminal enterprise" as soon as the U.S. Treasury announced its historic program to bail out the banks in late 2008.
"The charges today send a powerful message to those who tried to steal from the TARP, those who have stolen from the TARP and those who are contemplating similar fraudulent action," Barofsky said.
