Aurora Man Sentenced To Federal Prison For Bank Fraud

DENVER -- Alan Alonzo Williams, age 56, of Aurora, Colorado was sentenced last week by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Blackburn to serve 84 months in federal prison followed by 5 years on supervised release for bank fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn, IRS Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin Caramucci, and FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Dean Phillips.

Williams, who was sentenced on June 19, 2019 had pled guilty on January 12, 2017, but his sentencing hearing was delayed several times at his request.  He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,146,828.28 to the lenders he pled guilty to defrauding.

According to the indictment and plea agreement, Williams wanted to obtain funds for himself and for Williams Vending Company, Inc. (WVC), a company established by Williams and his parents that sold, leased, repaired and operated vending machines.  Williams was unable to qualify for bank loans due to his prior felony convictions and status as a parolee.  He engaged the involvement of a third party, Ms. X, who had no true ownership interest in WVC to represent that she was its president in order to obtain loans on behalf of WVC.  In actuality, Williams controlled the finances and operations of WVC.  Williams knew that Ms. X had a serious drug problem, and exploited her habit by causing her to sign various documents and then providing her with money, which she would use to buy drugs to get high.

In 2007, Williams had Ms. X sign a contract to purchase a home in Denver, and he later arranged for her to obtain a $800,000 loan to purchase the property.  Williams caused false information about Ms. X’s financial status, including fraudulent Forms W-2 and earning statements, to be submitted to the lender in order to make it appear that she qualified for the loan. 

Williams subsequently arranged for three bank accounts to be opened in WVC’s name and gave Ms. X sole signature authority over the accounts.  He nonetheless maintained control over the accounts. He later worked through loan brokers in order to obtain Small Business Administration loans for WVC.  Much of the information that Williams submitted in order to obtain the loans was false.  The false information included that Ms. X was the president and sole owner of WVC, that she had many years of management experience, that she currently earned a substantial salary at WVC, and that she had substantial assets and resided in a $1.1 million home.  None of that was true.

Williams also told the brokers that WVC focused on proving vending products to government offices and agencies, as Ms. X qualified as a minority business owner and the company qualified as a minority contractor.  Williams similarly obtained a loan by representing that WVC had a contract to provide vending services for three major apartment complexes, when there was no such contract.  William misrepresented to the lenders how the loan proceeds would be used.  He presented documents purporting to be agreements between various government agencies and WVC to the lenders when, in fact, WVC did not have agreements with those agencies.  Williams did not use all the loan proceeds to pay creditors as required by the terms of the loans.  Williams used a large portion of the proceeds for his own purposes, rather than for the purposes authorized for the SBA guaranteed loan.      

The loans Williams obtained for WVC through these fraudulent means including a loan for $800,000 and additional loans for $360,000.  Williams also attempted to obtain another loan for $550,000, which was declined by the lender.

“Fraud hurts our economy and hurts victims, as was the case here,” said U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn.  “The seven year federal prison sentence is an appropriate outcome for this defendant’s attempt at cheating the system.”

“Williams’ scheme was about driven greed and a blatant disregard for the damage inflicted on the banking system.  Today’s sentence sends a message that bank fraud will ultimately cost the fraudster," said IRS Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin Caramucci.

"The FBI is committed to aggressively pursuing those who commit bank fraud. Falsifying information on a loan application and lying to a lender to facilitate approval for a loan is a felony,” said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Dean Phillips. “We hope the recent sentencing of Alan Alonzo Williams will deter others who engage in these types of fraud schemes.”

This case was investigated by Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and the FBI.  The defendant was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Weber.