Bank Fraud

Robert Stinson Jr. must have one hell of a sense of humor. "The strength of a company is derived from the integrity of its employees," reads a line on the Web site for one of his investment companies, Keystone State Capital Corp. Ready for the punch line? Stinson, a convicted felon from Berwyn, Chester County, was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday of using his companies to run a Ponzi scheme that's bilked $16 million from more than 140 investors. His wife, Susan, and several other relatives are allegedly part of the scheme.

U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois has declared a mistrial in the case of the Budge Industries CEO who was charged last year with five counts of bank fraud. Howard Bruce Klein, attorney for Charles Simon, 57, of Blue Bell, said the jury was deadlocked, 10-2, for acquittal after two days of deliberations. In court filings, Klein said the alleged fraud occurred nearly 10 years ago. The case involved a $1.3 million loss to Summit Bank. Two other defendants earlier pleaded guilty. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said it was premature to say whether prosecutors would seek a retrial.

She stole from her employer, masquerading as the boss to take out a six-figure loan in the boss' name. She stole from her ex-husband's ailing grandfather, lifting nearly $300,000 from the elderly man's retirement account. She stole the civil settlements given two teenage sex-abuse victims - and then forged a New Jersey judge's signature to try to get more. So says a federal grand jury indictment that accuses Bonnie Sweeten - the Bucks County mother already doing time for a nationally publicized abduction hoax - of swiping more than $700,000 while working as a paralegal at a Feasterville law firm.

WASHINGTON - Some sex-obsessed rappers helped initiate Elena Kagan into the world of appellate advocacy. The Supreme Court nominee's judicial inexperience has become Republicans' main line of attack. She has never been a judge. Compared with some justices past and present, moreover, Kagan's resume of courtroom experience is remarkably thin. A Harvard Law School graduate, Kagan practiced as a private lawyer from February 1989 to June 1991, as a junior associate with the prestigious Washington firm of Williams & Connolly.

On Oct. 5, 2007, Mustafa Ali was arrested for passing a bad check five months earlier to buy an Acura TL Type S. But Ali, an electronics technician from Northeast Philadelphia, appeared to know his troubles were far worse than bank fraud. He was at Police Headquarters in the Homicide Division, inside a 10-by-7-foot interview room with a two-way mirror. Detective Timothy Bass took his biographical information, then abruptly asked if he knew anything about the previous day's armored-car robbery.

The former leader of an identity-theft ring out on supervised release after almost three years in jail was back in federal court yesterday, charged with using stolen credit-card information to buy airline tickets to the Caribbean and a car for a friend and to pay for plumbing repairs at her West Philadelphia home. Nefertiti Randall, 28, was arrested by U.S. postal inspectors in 2002 and accused of leading a group that racked up almost $250,000 in fraudulent credit-card charges.

U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid yesterday filed formal criminal charges against Joseph S. Forte, a Broomall investment manager who allegedly defrauded investors of $20 million in a scheme that collapsed late last year. Yesterday's action followed a January filing of a criminal complaint against Forte, after he had confessed to authorities. That gave prosecutors time to refine their case. Forte is now charged in federal court in Philadelphia with wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.

The former chief executive of a Texas company targeted in a federal fraud investigation that also involves mobster Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. has lashed out at the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI, alleging that the agencies helped his rivals take control of the firm. In a barbed 18-point memo disseminated to shareholders by e-mail yesterday, John Maxwell alleged that federal authorities contributed to a "massive fraud" at FirstPlus Financial Group Inc., the company he once headed. Maxwell remains on the board of directors of the company, based in Irving, outside Dallas.

A federal jury yesterday found a Chester County man guilty of doing business with Iran without proper authorization, but not guilty of acting as an illegal agent of the Iranian government. Ali Amirnazmi, 65, was convicted on charges of conspiracy, lying to government officials, and bank fraud, and of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Asked Amirnazmi's reaction to the verdict, defense attorney Elizabeth K. Ainslie said he was "intensely disappointed.

Federal prosecutors yesterday filed bank-fraud charges against a Chester County chemical engineer who earlier had been accused of conducting numerous illicit business transactions with Iran. A superseding indictment was filed against Ali Amirnazmi, 64, a U.S. and Iranian citizen who lived in Berwyn and operated the Exton-based TranTech Consultants Inc., a business specializing in software for chemical companies, court records said. Defense attorney Elizabeth K. Ainslie said yesterday that she has not seen the indictment and could not comment.