Press Release
TWO BANK INSIDERS AND SIX OTHERS CHARGED IN BANK FRAUD SCHEME TO DEFRAUD BANK OF AMERICA AND WACHOVIA OF $1 MILLION
December 23, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today that, on December 18, 2008, a federal grand jury returned a five count indictment charging Bienvenido “Benny” Benach, Jr., Ramon Puentes, Danny Flores, Rolando Alfonso, Jorge Nobrega, Jorge Arrieta, Sebastian Kishinevsky, and Adriana Cruz, with a bank fraud scheme that resulted in the approval and disbursement of two home equity loans, totaling approximately $1 million. As alleged in the indictment, the scheme was directed at Bank of America and Wachovia. The defendants have been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1349, 1344 and 1028A. All of the defendants have made their initial appearances before a Magistrate Judge and the case will be set for trial by the District Court Judge presiding over the matter.
According to the indictment, Benach, Puentes, Flores and Alfonso decided to submit simultaneous applications for fraudulent home equity lines of credit (“HELOCs”) to Bank of America and Wachovia for the total amount of $1 million, requesting $500,000 from each bank. Each HELOC application listed Benach’s mother-in-law as the purported borrower, and a home owned by Benach’s mother-in-law as the collateral. To prepare and process the HELOC applications, Benach’s mother-in-law’s name and social security number were used without her knowledge, input or authority.
Flores and Alfonso submitted the fraudulent Bank of America HELOC application to Arrieta, a personal banker at Bank of America, and gave the fraudulent Wachovia HELOC application to Kishinevsky, a financial specialist at Wachovia. For a fee, each bank insider agreed to process the fraudulent HELOC. At the time of the submission of the fraudulent HELOC applications, neither bank was made aware of the other pending HELOC application. After the HELOC at each bank was funded and the funds were made available, the defendants disbursed and shared the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds, receiving in total approximately $800,000.
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other federal law enforcement agencies comprising the Mortgage Fraud Strike Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joseph B. Shumofsky.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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