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A Delaware man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for his role in a fraud and money laundering scheme involving a bank that was a recipient of funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), according to an announcement by the Special Inspector General for the TARP (SIGTARP) and U.S. Attorney General for Delaware Charles M. Oberly III.
James A. Ladio, 58, of Wilmington, Delaware, pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud and two counts of money laundering on December 17, 2013, according to SIGTARP.
According to facts revealed during the sentencing, Ladio, while president and CEO of MidCoast Community Bank, recruited two former MidCoast customers to obtain loans from MidCoast, after which the customers then loaned proceeds back to Ladio. Former Wilmington Trust market manager Brian Bailey and Ladio were involved in a decade-long "loan swap" scheme in which the two men provided more than 20 loans to each other, the proceeds from which totaled more than $1.5 million. Ladio entered into a Global Restructuring Agreement in 2010 after Wilmington Trust called his loans, and he took part in the scheme in order to make his principal and interest payments as outlined in the agreement.
"Ladio, former president and chief executive officer of MidCoast Community Bank and a leader in the Delaware banking community, was sentenced to spend the next two years in federal prison for bank fraud against three banks, including TARP bank Wilmington Trust Corporation," said Christy Romero, Special Inspector General for TARP. "For more than a decade involving more than 20 transactions, Ladio lined his pockets by fraudulently securing Wilmington Trust loans through former Wilmington Trust officer Brian Bailey in exchange for Ladio making sweetheart loans to Bailey. Ladio used the loans to pay off personal debt. SIGTARP and our law enforcement partners will hold accountable perpetrators who engage in fraud related to TARP. We will not rest in our efforts to identify and investigate those individuals, unravel their crimes, and support their prosecution. We are proud to stand together with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware in our combined fight against bailout related crime."
