Capital Briefs: Ex-FDIC Official Indicted for Embezzling

A former FDIC employee was indicted March 17 for allegedly embezzling and laundering $138,500 in agency funds, according to the FDIC inspector general.

Douglas Peklo of Woodbury, Conn., who was a liquidation specialist in South Brunswick, N.J., pocketed the money while overseeing a New Jersey marina that the agency seized as collateral on a defaulted loan, the inspector general's office said.

After a fire sprinkler discharge damaged the marina's restaurant, the FDIC settled with an insurance company for $138,500. The indictment charges Mr. Peklo sent the check to an associate in Georgia, who deposited it into his escrow account. The associate then wired the money back to a Washington bank account held by a company owned by Mr. Peklo.

A federal judge in Trenton, N.J., ordered that Mr. Peklo be jailed until his May 27 trial after he threatened to kill three FDIC employees and two other officials, according to an assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey. Mr. Peklo faces up to 30 years in prison and more than $550,000 in fines.

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