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Indian national pleads guilty to $17 million bank fraud
Nitin Vats faces a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of US$1 million.
Representative Image / Unsplash
Indian national Nitin Vats, a former employee of a now-defunct New Jersey-based marble and granite wholesaler, has pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to defraud a bank in connection with a US$17 million secured line of credit, US Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced Apr.17.
Nitin Vats, 52, pleaded guilty before US District Judge Susan D Wigenton to count one of an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution, the Department of Justice said. As such, he faces a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of US$1 million. Sentencing is scheduled for September 11, 2024.
According to documents, from March 2016 through March 2018, an owner and employees of Lotus Exim International Inc. (LEI), including Vats, conspired to obtain from the victim bank a US$17 million line of credit by fraudulent means.
The victim bank extended LEI the line of credit, believing it to have been secured in part by LEI’s accounts receivable. In reality, the conspirators had fabricated and inflated many of the accounts receivable, ultimately leading to LEI defaulting on the line of credit.
Screen Grab of the indictment. / Federal prosecutors alleged that to conceal the lack of sufficient collateral, Vats created fake email addresses on behalf of LEI’s customers so that other LEI employees could pose as those customers and answer the victim bank’s and outside auditor’s inquiries about the accounts receivable.
The scheme involved numerous fraudulent accounts receivable where the outstanding balances were either inflated or entirely fabricated. The scheme caused the victim bank losses of approximately $17 million, the Department of Justice said.
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