Gave False Info To Get Credit Line
A federal jury returned a guilty verdict on Dec. 30, 2011 against the former chief executive officer of a Long Island City-based holding company for bank fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, stemming from a scheme to defraud a bank out of $21 million in fraudulent loans.
When sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, Courtney Dupree faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on the most serious charge.
The verdicts were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Dupree was the CEO of GDC Acquisitions, a holding company that owns various subsidiaries, including JDC Lighting, a lighting distributor; Unalite Electric and Lighting, a lighting maintenance company; and Hudson Bay Environments Group, a furniture distributor.
The evidence against Dupree included the testimony of GDC’s former CFO and two GDC accountants, all three of whom had previously pleaded guilty to fraud charges arising from the scheme.
At trial, the government proved
–SEE FRAUD ON PG. 30- Dupree and others gave Amalgamated Bank false financial information for GDC in which they had fraudulently inflated the company’s accounts receivables in order to obtain initially, and then maintain, credit lines totaling approximately $21 million. For example, Dupree represented to Amalgamated Bank in writing in November 2009 that GDC had $25.2 million in accounts receivables when, in fact, it had only $9 million.
According to the FBI, the evidence proved that the conspirators inflated the accounts receivables by a variety of means, including by recording fake sales that had never taken place in the corporate books. The schemes unraveled when one of the accountants turned himself into the FBI and cooperated in the government’s investigation in an undercover capacity for approximately two months.
“The defendant Courtney Dupree defrauded an FDIC insured bank out of millions of dollars by lying about his company’s financial condition,” said U.S. Attorney Lynch in a statement. “Executives who abuse positions of influence and trust should expect to be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
The jury acquitted Thomas Foley, GDC’s former chief operating officer.
U.S. Attorney Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the agencies responsible for leading the government’s criminal investigation.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David C. Woll and Michael L. Yaeger, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Morris. The case was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, it was noted.
