California Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Community Correctional Facility in Connection with Scheme to Defraud First International Bank and Export-Import Bank

The U.S. Department of Justice reports in its press release (quotation, not an independent finding): “WASHINGTON – Carlos Serrano, 64, of Glendale, Calif., was sentenced to 18 months in a community correctional facility in connection with a $1.3 million scheme to defraud the First International Bank of Connecticut (FIB) and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien of the Central District of California announced today. Serrano was sentenced on Feb. 9, 2009, in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by Judge Christina A. Snyder. In addition to his prison sentence, Serrano was placed on five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution of $924,569 to the Ex-Im Bank. Following a four-day trial, Serrano was convicted on Sept. 18, 2008, of conspiring to commit bank fraud and committing bank fraud in connection with a fraudulent $1.3 million loan transaction involving FIB and the Ex-Im Bank. At trial, the jury heard testimony that in approximately November 2000, Serrano met with alleged co-conspirators and agreed to act as an exporter in a loan transaction between a company in the Philippines and FIB, in which the Ex-Im Bank acted as guarantor. According to trial testimony, Serrano’s sole job in the transaction was to obtain a $200,000 down payment from the Philippine company, purchase $1.3 million in U.S. goods on behalf of the Philippine company, ship the purchased goods to the Philippine company and certify to FIB and the Ex-Im Bank that he had purchased and shipped those goods. The jury heard testimony that Serrano contacted U.”