“This was a major fraud perpetrated against shareholders, including by people whose job was to protect shareholders' interests," said Steven Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. "It constitutes self-dealing on the most outrageous scale."
CLEVELAND – The former CEO and eight members of St. Paul Croatian FCU were indicted this afternoon on charges related to last year’s collapse of St. Paul Croatian and a $170 million fraud that caused one of the biggest credit union losses ever.
The indictments charge Anthony Raquez, the CEO of the one-time $240 million credit union, with issuing more than 1,000 fraudulent loans totaling more than $70 million to more than 300 members at St. Paul from 2000 to April 2010.
The indictment also charges him with accepting more than $500,000 in bribes, kickbacks and gifts from St. Paul members who fraudulently obtained loans. The indictment also charges him with four money laundering counts for issuing checks totaling $371,800 drawn on his St. Paul account payable to The Vanguard Group.
Today’s charges follow a January indictment on fraud charges of Koljo Nikolovski, an alleged Mecedonia crime figure who prosecutors borrowed $5 million from the St. Paul Croatian with no intention to repay the loans.
Today’s indictments alleges that Nikolovski obtained several loans from St. Paul and Raguz from 2003 through 2005 that were not repaid. The indictment alleges that he was aided and abetted on some of those loans by his ex-wife and the other individuals named in the indictment.
“This was a major fraud perpetrated against shareholders, including by people whose job was to protect shareholders' interests," said Steven Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. "It constitutes self-dealing on the most outrageous scale."
