Pulaski Bank customer from Chesterfield charged with bank fraud

Source: St.迷你倉 Louis Post-DispatchNov. 16--ST. LOUIS --A Pulaski Bank customer with more than $6 million in outstanding loans was arrested Friday on a bank fraud charge, just days after the institution announced that a scam had forced it to re-state its earnings.Michael Edward Filmore, 51, of Chesterfield, was charged Thursday in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court here.In an affidavit filed in court, FBI Special Agent Peyton Tucker said the bank discovered early this month that Filmore had used a fictitious purchase order and other questionable information to secure a loan to buy medical equipment.Filmore supplied the name of a contact person who didn't work for the equipment seller, and a bank account for the seller that was actually controlled by Filmore, Tucker wrote.Filmore had been a customer for years and held at least 15 outstanding loans valued at more than $6 million, many in the name of Healthcare Partners Group LLC, Tucker wrote.The bank later discovered that Filmore had fabricated brokerage account records that he had pledged as collateral for the loans. Filmore altered the records to falsely show that he had millions of dollars in his account instead of nothing, Tucker wrote.Filmore, reached Friday by phone, said he did not want to talk before speaking with his attorney, Travis Noble. Noble, reached later, said he could not comme文件倉t as he had not seen any of the evidence in the case.On Monday, Creve Coeur-based Pulaski Financial Corp. said it had been victimized in an elaborate fraud by a commercial loan customer who claimed to be in the equipment-leasing business and who created false documentation regarding the purchase of assets that were the subject of fictitious leases.Pulaski Financial, the holding company for Pulaski Bank, said the customer had an outstanding loan balance, less collateral the bank possessed, of about $6.4 million."The Company is aggressively pursuing collection of the loans from the customer and with the appropriate authorities," Pulaski said in a statement, adding that insurance may cover some of the loss.Pulaski said it would revise financial results to reflect the loss. It resulted in an after-tax charge to earnings of $3.9 million, a loss attributable to common shares of $942,000, or 8 cents per share, and a revision of full fiscal year earnings available to common shares of $8.3 million, or 74 cents per share.Asked whether the Filmore case was connected to the earlier announcement, Pulaski general counsel Kevin King said, "That is one and the same." He decline to comment on any further details.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at .stltoday.com Distributed by MCT Information Services存倉