Two Bank Insiders Sentenced for HEL Scheme

After pleading guilty to a $1 million scheme involving the approval and disbursement of two fraudulent home equity loans, four individuals, including two bank insiders, were sentenced to prison. U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold sentenced Ramon Puentes to 57 months in prison and five years of supervised release, Jorge Nobrega to 27 months and five years of supervised release and Jorge Arrieta to 22 months and five years of supervised release. Sebastian Kishinevsky, who cooperated with the government and assisted with the investigation, received a sentence of six months in prison, six months of home confinement and three years of supervised release. Judge Gold also ordered Puentes and Nobrega to each pay $796,700 in restitution, Arrieta $470,000 and Kishinevsky $326,700. According to Jeffrey H. Sloman, U.S attorney for the Southern District of Florida, the defendants obtained two fraudulent loans, one from Bank of America and one from Wachovia, for $500,000 each. They submitted the loan applications using the stolen identification information of one of the defendant's mother-in-law and supported by fraudulent documents. Each application listed the mother-in-law as the borrower and a home owned by the mother-in-law as collateral. The Bank of America application was submitted to Arrieta, a personal banker at Bank of America. The Wachovia application was submitted to Kishinevsky, a financial specialist at Wachovia. After the loans were approved, the defendants disbursed and shared the proceeds.