Florida businessman charged with Coutts bank fraud
NEW YORK, March 17 (Reuters) - A Florida businessman was being held on $1 million bail after pleading not guilty to charges of stealing millions from a British bank, officials said on Friday.
Coutts & Co. A.G. lost $100 million between the time the bank opened its New York branch and when it closed in December 1998.
Ronald Seale, Sr., 52, of Windermere, Florida, was charged in a 19-count indictment with grand larceny, scheming to defraud, conspiracy, falsification of business records and criminal possession of forged documents.
He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the top count of grand larceny.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said Seale established offshore companies in the Bahamas, Antigua and the British Virgin Islands, among other sites, and agreed with unnamed officers of Coutts Bank in New York to represent them falsely as being owned by wealthy people outside the United States.
The indictment further alleges that Seale would submit, and the alleged corrupt bank officers would knowingly approve, phony credit and loan applications to get money from Coutts & Co. A.G., of London.
Morgenthau also said Seale bought unregistered securities with money from Coutts, falsely representing his eligibility and that of the companies he controlled to buy the stock.
18:57 03-17-00 |
