Pittsfield Businessman Sentenced For $4 Million Conspiracy To Defraud A Credit Union

BOSTON – A businessman, who owned and operated five real estate development companies in Pittsfield, was sentenced on Friday, Aug. 9, 2019, in federal court in Springfield for defrauding a credit union.

Jeffrey Pierce, 51, of Pittsfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Mark G. Mastroianni to 20 months in prison, $3,821,616 of forfeiture, and restitution of $877,725 to Greylock Federal Credit Union and $2,901,833 to Fidelity Deposit Company of Maryland. In June 2018, Pierce pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to receive money through transactions of a credit union with intent to defraud the credit union and to make false statements to a federal credit union.

Between 2005 and 2008, a former Vice President of Greylock Federal Credit Union (GFCU) authorized approximately $4 million in various loans and modifications to Pierce and his companies in violation of GFCU’s loan policies. By circumventing GFCU’s policies, the Vice President caused GFCU to provide Pierce and his companies with funds far in excess of what Pierce and his companies could reasonably receive or repay. In exchange for improperly authorizing these loans, Pierce agreed to provide - and did provide - the Vice President with $134,773 in check payments from Pierce’s companies derived from GFCU loans that were paid to a front company created by the employee; the free use of a home constructed by one of Pierce’s companies with a GFCU loan; and the free use of a BMW automobile purchased by one of Pierce’s companies with a GFCU loan. Around March 2010, at the Vice President’s direction and for the purpose of influencing the action of GFCU upon the loans, Pierce falsely stated to GFCU that the money paid by his companies to the front company were payments for design work that the Vice President’s wife provided to Pierce’s construction projects.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Kristina O’Connell, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, New England Field Division, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven H. Breslow of Lelling’s Springfield Branch Office prosecuted the case.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/pittsfield-businessman-sentenced-4-million-conspiracy-defraud-credit-union
(no more at link)