A Floral Park man faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of bank bribery tied to a fraudulent loan scheme, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
A news release described the involvement of Michael Albarella, 35, of Floral Park, in laundering around $200,000 in funds from the scheme dating to around March 2019. Albarella reportedly got involved with the scheme with a co-worker at the Manhattan branch of a national bank, Herode Chancy, a 41-year-old man from Bellerose.
“Bank employee Herode Chancy engaged in a scheme to obtain over $1 million in commercial loans for fake businesses, and his co-worker Michael Albarella then accepted a bribe to open a bank account using a stolen identity for the purpose of laundering a portion of the stolen money,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said. “Chancy and Albarella now await sentencing for their fraudulent and corrupt acts.”
Chancy, along with a man named Adedayo Ilori, allegedly conspired to fraudulently obtain business loans from a third-party commercial lender with the intent to not repay, or “bust out” the loans, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The scheme resulted in the two obtaining more than $1 million after submitting eight fraudulent business loan applications.
The fraudulent loan applications submitted by Chancy and Ilori listed the identities of other people as the applicants, along with stolen identities, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The two men also reportedly opened bank accounts under the stolen identities they used on the loan applications.
The two then turned to Albarella, who reportedly accepted a $10,000 bribe from the men to open a bank account using a stolen identity to launder around $200,000 from the loan scheme.
Chancy and Ilori claimed they were under the impression that the underwriter for the third-party lender was participating in the scheme, but the underwriter was an undercover law enforcement official, according to the news release.
Albarella pleaded guilty to one count of bank bribery on Thursday, which could send him to prison for up to 30 years, and will be sentenced on June 28. Chancy pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud on March 12, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years. Chancy also admitted to conspiracy to commit money laundering and will be sentenced on July 9.
Ilori faces charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Efforts to reach a representative from the Justice Department for more information were unavailing.
