NINE DEFENDANTS INDICTED IN $170 MILLION BANK FRAUD SCHEME

Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Hector M. Pesquera, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced today the unsealing of a 47-count federal grand jury indictment charging nine defendants, Eduardo Orlansky, Hector Orlansky, R. Peter Stanham, Dominick Parlapiano, Carlos E. Mendez, Ariadna Puerto, Otto Ambrosiani, Jeffrey Barnhill, and Howard Cantor, with conspiring to carry out a $170 million bank and wire fraud scheme.

Eduardo Orlansky, Hector Orlansky, R. Peter Stanham, and Dominick Parlapiano were directors of E.S. Bankest, LLC, while Carlos E. Mendez was a Senior Vice President of E.S. Bankest, LLC. They are charged with multiple counts of bank fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1344; wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343; and conspiracy, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371. Hector Orlansky is also charged with making false statements to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1007. Bank fraud, wire fraud, and false statements to the FDIC are crimes carrying maximum penalties of 30 years’ imprisonment and fines of up to $1 million. Conspiracy is punishable by up to 5 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.

Jeffrey Barnhill was a director of Joy Athletic, Inc. an athletic clothing company that factored its accounts receivable with E.S. Bankest, LLC, and Howard Cantor was a director of StrataSys, Corporation, a consulting company that also factored its accounts receivable with E.S. Bankest, LLC. Both Barnhill and Cantor are charged with conspiracy, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371, and multiple counts of bank fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1344. These defendants also face maximum penalties of 30 years’ imprisonment and fines of up to $1 million.

Ariadna Puerto was an officer of E.S. Bankest, LLC, while Otto Ambrosiani was responsible for the information systems and technologies at E.S. Bankest, LLC. Both are charged with conspiracy, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371.

According to the indictment, the nine defendants conspired to fraudulently inflate, by hundreds of millions of dollars, the value of collateral used to obtain loans through Espirito Santo Bank of Florida. The defendants either worked for or did business with E.S. Bankest, LLC, a company in the business of “factoring.” Factoring involves the purchase of accounts receivable from
companies at a discount. Espirito Santo Bank was a joint venture partner in E.S. Bankest, LLC, and was responsible for arranging funding for E.S. Bankest, LLC’s factoring operations. The accounts receivable E.S. Bankest, LLC purchased were supposed to serve as the collateral for the funding arranged by Espirito Santo Bank.

Over the nine-year period from June 1994 through August 2003, the nine defendants engaged in a variety of methods to deceive Espirito Santo Bank into providing funding. The defendants falsified financial statements, created fictitious invoices and checks, used fictitious companies, and engaged in other machinations to create the appearance that millions of dollars in false accounts receivable were actually real. Through these tactics, defendants deceived Espirito Santo Bank, federal banking regulators, and independent public accounting firms conducting audits of E.S. Bankest, LLC, about the value of the accounts receivable owned, all to support additional loans through the bank. As a result of their schemes, the defendants illegally obtained approximately $170 million in loan proceeds.

Mr. Jiménez stated, “This case is one of the largest bank and corporate fraud cases ever prosecuted in South Florida. This $170 million fraud scheme, which was perpetrated over almost ten years, was dismantled and prosecuted swiftly by the United States Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

Mr. Jiménez commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Stephen Stallings and Caroline Heck Miller.