A 5th former borrower of failed First NBC bank pleads guilty to multimillion-dollar fraud plot

A fifth major client of the former First NBC Bank has pleaded guilty to having a hand in a multimillion-dollar scheme purportedly hatched by the collapsed bank’s founder to defraud First NBC and its shareholders.

Warren Treme, a property developer from Metairie who was accused of lying with the help and knowledge of First NBC officials to reel in more than $6 million in loans, admitted Wednesday to a single charge of conspiring to commit bank fraud after working out a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, according to records filed at the U.S. District Courthouse in New Orleans.

In exchange, prosecutors said they would recommend that Treme receive a prison sentence of around three years, though a judge could ultimately give him up to 30 years behind bars. U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance tentatively set Treme’s sentencing for Jan. 6.

Treme’s admission in the case tracks those of former First NBC borrowers Kenneth Charity, Jeffrey Dunlap, Gary Gibbs and Gregory St. Angelo, who was also the bank’s general counsel. Charity, Dunlap, Gibbs and St. Angelo have all pleaded guilty.

Read more: https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/article_6f0f7b96-ed45-11ea-bfe1-af1875313899.html