North Baltimore, Ohio Man Sentenced for Loan Fraud

Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced that Jason E. Schwartz, age 36, of North Baltimore, Ohio, was sentenced today by U.S. District Chief Judge James G. Carr to five months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, followed by three years of supervised release. Schwartz was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $131,500.00 to The Huntington National Bank and $200.00 in special assessments to the Crime Victims’ Fund.

On April 2, 2009, a federal grand jury in Toledo, Ohio, returned an indictment charging Schwartz with making a false statement on a loan application. On December 23, 2009, Schwartz pleaded guilty to making a false statement on a loan application.

The indictment charged that on or about May 2002, Schwartz, knowingly made a material false statement for the purpose of influencing the action of The Huntington National, an institution with deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, in connection with a loan, extension, renewal, and deferment of the same loan, in that Schwartz obtained a loan in the amount of $272,000.00, of which $172,000.00 was to pay off an existing loan with the bank, and the remaining $100,000.00 was to be used for the building of a barn, when in fact Schwartz did not intend to use the proceeds to build a barn.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas A. Karol of the Toledo U.S. Attorney’s Office, following an investigation by the Lima Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.