Former Vice President of Boeing Helicopters Credit Union Sentenced for Loan Fraud Scheme

February 22, 2010 - PHILADELPHIA—Anthony Forte, 43, of Glen Mills, PA, was sentenced today to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,259,032.14 in restitution for conspiracy, loan fraud, and bank bribery. Forte’s brother, David, 39, of Prospect Park, PA, was sentenced to one day in prison for the same charges and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $178,445.70. Both men pleaded guilty in November 2009. In reaching a sentence below the guidelines, U.S. District Court Judge Berle M. Schiller took into account David Forte’s medical condition, specifically the fact that he has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

Anthony Forte was an Executive Vice President and Director of Marketing at the Boeing Helicopters Credit Union (“BHCU”), in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. Anthony Forte pleaded guilty to using his position at BHCU to obtain cash kickbacks from unqualified loan applicants in exchange for approving $20,000 loans from BHCU. Forte received a kickback of at least five percent of the loan amount for each loan. Forte also admitted to instructing loan processors at BHCU to approve the loans despite fraudulent documentation submitted to support the loan. Many of the loan applications contained false statements that made it appear that the applicant was qualified for the loan when the applicant was either not qualified or was not even eligible to be a member of the credit union.

To perpetuate the kickback scheme, Forte recruited his brother, David, and several others, to find applicants to apply for loans and pay kickbacks to Anthony Forte. David Forte, who did not work for BHCU, also received hundreds of dollars in kickbacks. The scheme netted more than $100,000 in kickbacks for the Forte brothers and the middlemen. The unqualified loan applicants obtained more than $2.2 million in fraudulent loans from the credit union as part of the scheme.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah Grieb and Michelle Rotella.