Arlene Arellano Sentenced for Bankruptcy Fraud
| U.S. Attorney's Office April 05, 2010 |
The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that Arlene Arellano, 64, of Wardsboro, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Burlington to three months of imprisonment following her guilty plea to a charge of bankruptcy fraud. Chief U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III also ordered that Arellano serve a two-year term of supervised release following completion of her prison term. As a condition of supervised release, Arellano must serve, in addition to her jail term, three months of home confinement. The court ordered that Arellano surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on May 4, 2010 to begin serving her sentence.
On June 24, 2009, a federal grand jury in Rutland filed a three-count indictment charging Arellano with engaging in a scheme to defraud creditors, concealing assets in bankruptcy court filings and making false statements under penalty of perjury. Arellano had filed for chapter 13 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Vermont in late November 2007. Although she was required by law to truthfully disclose in her bankruptcy petition and accompanying schedules all of her assets and liabilities, Arellano failed to disclose that, at the time of her filing, she owned a one-half interest in a house in Wardsboro (appraised at approximately $150,000), and that she had a bank account in South Carolina which contained more than $3000. Just one month before filing for bankruptcy, Arellano gifted her interest in another home in Wardsboro to a daughter, and then failed to disclose the transfer as required in her bankruptcy filings.
Arellano’s fraud upon the bankruptcy court was discovered before her debts were discharged. Arellano later filed amended schedules and ultimately had her chapter 13 plan approved by the court.
This case was investigated by the Burlington, Vermont office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Arellano is represented by Elizabeth Mann. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.