French National Indicted For Six Million Dollar Bank Fraud Scheme and for Lying In an Application

[TexasTowelie]

French National Indicted For Six Million Dollar Bank Fraud Scheme and for Lying In an Application for U. S. Government Insured Loans


NEW ORLEANS – U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser announced today that GILES CASSE (“CASSE”), age 49, was charged on July 25, 2019 by a Grand Jury sitting in the Eastern District of Louisiana in a four-count indictment with violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 1344, Bank Fraud and Title 18, United States Code, Section 1014, False Statements to obtain a government insured loan.

In 2000, CASSE, a native of France, started a Houma, Louisiana based company, along with several other individuals, called GMD International which did business as “NOLATEK”. NOLATEK’s business model was the buying of used electronic testing parts, restoring the parts, and reselling them for a profit. CASSE maintained personal control of the company and applied for a series of loans, lines of credit and factoring agreements with banks in Louisiana and Texas. Two of the loans were backed by U.S. Government guarantors, such that if the loans were not repaid, the government was obligated to reimburse the banks up to 80% of the loan.

The indictment alleges two schemes victimizing three banks. The heart of the scheme was an inflated appraisal of NOLATEK’s inventory. CASSE hired an appraisal company to perform the economic evaluations, but CASSE provided undocumented estimates of NOLATEK’s inventory purchase costs. Specifically, the indictment alleges that CASSE fraudulently inflated the value of NOLATEK’s inventory that he provided to the appraiser. The indictment also alleges that although the initial appraisal valued NOLATEK inventory at over $21 million dollars in 2007, that same inventory was sold for approximately $64,000 in 2010.

The indictment further alleges that CASSE, on behalf of NOLATEK, presented an inflated and fraudulent appraisal in a loan guarantee application with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A) for a $3,000,000 loan at Prosper Bank in Dallas, Texas. The false loan application was executed in Louisiana and transmitted to the Texas bank. NOLATEK defaulted on the loan in 2009. In 2010, the USDA paid $2,107,259 to make good on the loan guarantee. Prosper Bank suffered a loss of $900,000.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edla/pr/french-national-indicted-six-million-dollar-bank-fraud-scheme-and-lying-application-u-0