Pittsburgh Man Admits Role in Dwelling House Savings & Loan Fraud Scheme

PITTSBURGH, PA—A resident of Pittsburgh has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of bank fraud and money laundering, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

Dimitri Manos, 25, pleaded guilty to 11 counts before Senior United States District Judge Alan N. Bloch.

In connection with the guilty plea, the court was advised that Manos executed a scheme to defraud Dwelling House Savings and Loan (DHSL) of its assets using fraudulent ACH transactions. Manos opened a PayPal account and associated his DHSL bank accounts to the PayPal account. Using PayPal to initiate ACH transactions, he caused disbursements to be made from DHSL in amounts that far exceeded any balance he had in his accounts at DHSL. Those insufficient funds transactions were not rejected and reversed by DHSL personnel. Manos also used various bank and credit card accounts of others for the same purpose. The loss attributed to Manos is $1,044,598.69. Manos also was charged with a money laundering transaction that derived from proceeds of bank fraud.

Judge Bloch scheduled sentencing for Jan. 5, 2012, at 12:30 p.m. The law provides for a total sentence of 40 years in prison, a fine of $1,500,000.00, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed is based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the criminal history, if any, of the defendant.

Assistant United States Attorney Paul E. Hull is prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and the City of Pittsburgh Police Department conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Dimitri Manos.