Four former officers of First Mountain Bank in Big Bear Lake, Calif., were arrested late Monday and Tuesday morning on charges of conspiring to defraud the government and consumers through a series of financial scams, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
An indictment unsealed Tuesday named Dennis Shollenburg, First Mountain's former president and chief executive; former executive vice president and chief financial officer Hazel Hagy; former assistant vice president and business development officer Brenda Knudson, and former senior vice president Vicky Melton.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles handed down the indictment in July. It also named Thomas Miller of Gainesville, Tex., the newspaper said.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Miller and Mr. Shollenburg sold antitax books and other literature through a business called the Freedom Education Center in Big Bear.
It also says that Mr. Miller traveled nationwide to help people establish bogus trusts that he claimed would shield money from income taxes. The defendants allegedly used the bank to house those accounts.
