PHILADELPHIA – A former vice president of Boeing Helicopters CU yesterday was sentenced to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay $1.25 million in restitution for taking kickbacks to arrange loans for unqualified applicants.
Anthony Forte, 43, who also serves as president of the local United Aerospace Workers union, had pleaded guilty in November to the scheme, from which he and his brother David netted about $100,000 in kickbacks from more than $2.5 million in fraudulent loans.
Under the scheme, about 130 unqualified members were furnished with false signature cards before they were approved for unsecured loans up to $20,000.
Some loan applications listed phony relatives and included inflated incomes. Those who received $20,000 loans had to kick back as much as $1,400, according to a September 2008 federal indictment in the case.
The $110 million credit union was chartered to serve employees at the Boeing plant in Ridley Park. Daniel Forte, who served as director of marketing, began to branch out into other select employee groups. Forte told loan processors to disregard applicants' credit problems and other information that could jeopardize their loans, according to the indictment.
David Forte, 39, was sentenced to one day in prison and ordered to pay more than $178,000 in restitution. In sentencing David Forte, U.S. Judge Berle Schiller took into account the fact that the younger brother has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.
