Baton Rouge Man Charged with Bank Fraud and Money Laundering
| U.S. Attorney’s Office June 15, 2011 |
BATON ROUGE, LA—United States Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux, Jr. announced that a Bill of Information was filed on June 15, 2011, charging STEVE HAROLD LOGA, 42, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with bank fraud and money laundering. LOGA faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
The charge alleges that from June 2008 to October 2008, LOGA devised a scheme to defraud Fidelity Bank of $1,229,745.21 by using fraudulent invoices to obtain credit advances from the bank. According to the Bill of Information, LOGA owned and operated a business known as Warehouse Food Group. LOGA established a line of credit with the bank which was secured by accounts receivable of his seafood business. During a four month period in 2008, LOGA created more than 90 false invoices which purported that LOGA’s business was owed $1,556,650 and submitted them to the bank in order to obtain advances on the line of credit established for his business. The scheme was discovered by the bank when the false invoices were not paid.
IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge, Jim Lee, stated that IRS Criminal Investigation is proud to utilize our forensic accounting skills in a joint investigation to put a stop to bank fraud and other types of white collar fraud.”
U.S. Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux, Jr., stated, “We will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute individuals who defraud our financial institutions. Diverting monies meant for legitimate lending activities will not be tolerated. This investigation is another great example of federal agencies cooperating to combat such illegal activity in our community.”
The investigation of LOGA was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rene I. Salomon.
NOTE: A bill of information is merely an accusation by the United States Attorney that an offense has been committed by the defendant. The defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty at trial.