Bank Fraud

Three area men have been identified as participants in a scheme that diverted nearly $50 million from a New York bank to a Mellon Bank account in Philadelphia earlier this year. The three were among 10 defendants indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury here on conspiracy and fraud charges. The defendants, some identified as mob associates from New York, hoped to have the money sent to a bank account overseas, so they could steal it, authorities said. But the FBI foiled the plot after an informant tipped authorities to what could have been one of the largest bank frauds in history, said Assistant U.S. Attorneys Allison D. Burroughs and Abigail R. Simkus, of the Organized Crime Division.

A real estate investor once described by tenants as a "millionaire slumlord" was charged Friday with defrauding banks of $10 million in an effort to shore up his rowhouse empire in Kensington and Port Richmond. The charges against Robert Coyle Sr., 66, of Glassboro, were handed up by a federal grand jury in Philadelphia. Coyle is accused of defrauding the East River Bank and Republic First Bank of more than $10 million in 2007 - at the height of the real estate bubble - by lying to the banks about property titles and income from rental houses put up as collateral.

In 1984, Tri-County Savings & Loan of Maple Shade, N.J., was a stagnant institution, badly in need of an infusion of new money. Its prayers were answered in the form of the Consolidated Mortgage Co. Consolidated, a little-known firm from Greenwich, Conn., agreed to invest $4 million in the savings and loan. The Connecticut company also brought millions of dollars in new, high-interest loans to Tri-County, greatly expanding the assets of the thrift. It all seemed too good to be true.

A Pottstown man who admitted defrauding 12 area banks of $98,336 was placed under house arrest for five years by a federal judge yesterday and ordered to repay the banks. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Weiner decided not to sentence David Mizic to five years' imprisonment after he learned that Mizic had found work as a production manager at a Pottstown-area paper factory. But Weiner also warned Mizic that he would be sent to prison for the full term if he missed even one payment on the restitution schedule to be established by federal probation officials.

A federal grand jury indicted a South Jersey developer yesterday on a charge that he lied to bankers when he applied for a $16 million construction loan. James M. Dwyer of Petersburg, Cape May County, whose projects have included placing $1 million penthouses on the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City, was arraigned in federal court in Camden. Dwyer, 61, pleaded not guilty to the one-count bank-fraud indictment. His son, Brendan Dwyer, said the family would not comment on the case.

Two West Chester businessmen have been charged in a fraudulent check- writing scheme that cost two banks about $1.9 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office said yesterday. Joseph W. Messner, 40, of Sunset Hollow Road, and Christopher R. Messner, 38, of Sconnelltown Road, were also accused of embezzling close to $340,000 from their company's employee-benefits plans. In the fraud scheme, First National Bank of West Chester lost more than $900,000 and CoreStates First Pennsylvnia Bank lost more than $1 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Several years ago, Eddie Bales, a lawyer's son, was viewed as a victim by the city's criminal justice system. He'd been abducted and beaten by the son of a former city bail commissioner after allegedly losing the bail commissioner's life savings, more than $200,000, in some speculative real estate ventures in Fishtown and other neighborhoods. The former bail commissioner, Marie C. Ruch, of Manayunk, was placed on probation in 1992 for terrorizing Bales. Her son, Eric, was sentenced to prison for beating and abducting Bales in a effort to recover his mother's lost funds.

A New Jersey shore real estate developer has been indicted on charges of racketeering, defrauding banks and mortgage companies, and using an association with imprisoned organized-crime boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo to advance his schemes, federal prosecutors say. Phillip J. McFillin, 51, a former Gladwyne resident who lives in Pompano Beach, Fla., was arrested yesterday in Philadelphia. He had been charged in an 11-count indictment returned Tuesday in Newark, N.J., according to a statement issued there by U.S. Attorney Faith S. Hochberg.

Former millionaire real estate developer Carmen J. Calvanese yesterday was charged by the U.S. attorney with bank fraud in connection with about $7 million he borrowed for the construction of two housing developments in Philadelphia. According to federal prosecutors, Calvanese engaged in a scheme to use the loans, borrowed between 1987 and 1990 and intended for the Eden Hall and Welsh Walk projects, to pay debts on his other construction projects. In 1990, Calvanese filed for bankruptcy protection, listing nearly $5 million in debts for five of his development, construction and management companies.

A Chester County man who allegedly posed as a bank chairman and conned almost $1 million in deposits from 10 other financial institutions nationwide has been indicted by a federal grand jury on bank fraud charges. The U.S. Attorney's Office yesterday made public the Sept. 24 indictment of James Paisley, 40, of Landenburg, and David Maddox, 63, a Fort Worth, Texas, man described as a "money broker," who allegedly was the intermediary for Paisley and his "Settlers Trust Savings Bank" with the 10 depositor banks.