A Florida fraudster was handed a five-year federal prison sentence for a $12 million scheme that cheated dozens of clients, investors and lenders, including Waterbury’s Webster Bank, investigators say.
U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport ordered Richard Pinto, 68, of Wellington, Fla., to serve 60 months, followed by five years of supervised release. He also must pay $12.3 million in restitution.
According to U.S. Attorney David B. Fein, Pinto chaired a Florida collection agency that was collecting debt payments from unsuspecting clients but not remitting the proceeds to creditors as promised.
Instead, Pinto and the Oxford Collection Agency hid its backlog of creditor payments when they approached lenders about borrowing money to keep the business afloat, prosecutors said.
In April 2007, Oxford obtained a secured line of credit from Webster, without telling the bank about Oxford’s financial problems, including outstanding payroll taxes, investigators said. Eventually, Webster extended a $6 million credit line to Oxford.
The investigation also revealed that Oxford sometimes obtained and retained business with its banking clients by paying bribes and kickbacks to bank officials, Fein said.
It was unclear how much of the credit line Oxford tapped and whether any Webster bankers were implicated in the scheme.
A Webster spokeswoman said Thursday none of its employees were implicated in the fraud.
Four other Oxford executives, including Pinto’s son, Peter Pinto, who was CEO; finance chief Randall Silver; operations chief Carlos Novelli; and Executive Vice President Charles Harris, have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from this scheme. They await sentencing.
This case is an outgrowth of the three-year-old Connecticut Securities, Commodities and Investor Fraud Task Force, involving Fein, the Connecticut chief state’s attorney’s office, the FBI, IRS, the U.S. Postal Service, Secret Service, Securities and Exchange Commission, and other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies.
