Former Mirae Bank Exec Charged with Bank Fraud

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A former executive at the now-defunct Mirae Bank was arrested Wednesday after federal officials charged him with arranging $150 million in fraudulent loans which ultimately contributed to the bank’s failure in 2009.

Ataollah Aminpour, 57, of Beverly Hills, was charged with six counts of federal bank fraud for causing Mirae Bank to issue fraudulent loans and two counts of making false statements to a financial institution in relation to loan applications. He was arrested without incident.

“Mr. Aminpour allegedly orchestrated a scheme in which Mirae Bank funded loans based on applications that were rife with misstatements and false information,” said U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker, in a statement. “Over the course of nearly four years, Mr. Aminpour was able to skim money from many of these loans, which allowed him to profit at the expense of the bank and taxpayers who had to bail out the failed financial institution.”

Aminpour’s attorney declined to comment.

According to the indictment, Aminpour “knowingly and with intent to defraud,” carried out the scheme from 2005 to 2009.

During that time, the indictment says, Aminpour portrayed himself as a rich and successful businessman who could help people get loans to acquire gas stations and car wash businesses with little or no down payment.

In certain instances, he found businesses for clients to purchase, but allegedly overstated the actual purchase price to buyers and the amount of the loans that they would be taking out from Mirae Bank, which was headquartered in Los Angeles.

The indictment alleges that loan officers were given false information, leading Mirae Bank to fund inflated loans and Aminpour and “others known and unknown” to pocket the difference.

According to the office of Decker, Aminpour received more than $1.4 million from the loans over a period in which Mirae Bank reported approximately $33 million in losses.

In 2009, Wilshire Bank acquired Mirae Bank’s assets from the FDIC. The indictment said that Wilshire Bank’s holding company, Wilshire Bancorp Inc., received $62,158,000 in taxpayer money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The case was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles by Decker, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lawrence S. Middleton, George S. Cardona, Ranee A. Katzenstein, and Special Assistant United States Attorney Kerry L. Quinn.

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