New Mexico Developer Charged With Loan Fraud In MBL

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A well-known real estate developer, his son and a business partner were charged in a federal indictment with siphoning more than $2.4 million in loans from First Financial CU and a now-failed Kansas bank meant for a downtown development for their own personal use.

The indictment charges Vincent Garcia, his son David Garcia and business partner Derek Barnhill with more than a dozen counts of bank fraud and money laundering totaling about $2.45 million, claiming some of the loan proceeds to build the $9 million Anasazi Downtown – a nine-story condominium project – were used instead on items such as a private residence for David Garcia and an interest in a casino for Vince Garcia.

Work on the project was stopped several months after federal regulators seized the Kansas-based bank that was financing it, Columbian Bank and Trust. The Topeka bank was seized and shut down by the FDIC last August.

Nineteen instances of the defendants illegally obtaining money adding up to $2.45 million are listed in the indictment. Vincent Garcia also used cashier's checks for almost $500,000 to purchase an interest in J&J Casino, according to court documents, which were reviewed by Credit Union Journal.

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