Finance Co. Owner Gets Prison for Ex-Im Bank Exporter Fraud
The Justice Department has announced that the owner of CLM Financing and Investments, a company in Miami that provided advice to exporters, was sentenced on July 18, 2011 to 63 months in prison for his role in assisting exporters obtain fraudulent loans that were insured by the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
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According to court records, all of the loans involving the owner, Carlos L. Morano, were fraudulent. As a result of the fraud, the loans went into default, causing the Ex-Im Bank to pay claims losses to the lending banks in the amount of $5,219,756.
Owner Gets 63 Months in Prison, $12M in Fines for Fraud Scheme
In addition to his 63 month prison term, Morano was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $5.2 million in restitution and $6.8 million in forfeiture.
(Morano pleaded guilty on May 6, 2011, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud the Ex-Im Bank of approximately $5.2 million. Morano, a naturalized U.S. Citizen, most recently resided in Buenos Aires, Argentina, until his arrest on November 8, 2010, in Atlanta, where he arrived after an international flight from Argentina.) .
Company Brokered Fraudulent Loans to 17 Exporters
Morano was the owner of CLM Financing and Investments, an investment planning company located in Miami that purported to be in the business of brokering loans and providing financial advice to Florida exporters.
Morano admitted that he assisted 17 exporters obtain fraudulent loans that were insured by the Ex-Im Bank; and, according to court records, Morano and others misappropriated the loan proceeds for their own use and benefit.
(From 2007 through 2010, Morano, through his company CLM, charged exporters up to $35,000 to prepare fraudulent loan applications and financial statements. Morano admitted that he instructed the exporters on how to prepare false purchase orders, invoices, account receivable forms, and bills of lading to falsely represent to various lending banks and the Ex-Im Bank the purchase and export of U.S. goods to buyers in South and Central America. Morano often charged the exporters a monthly service fee to continue providing false shipping documents and financial documents that would pass Ex-Im Bank review.)