Ex-jewelry executive gets prison term for bank fraud
September 27, 2006, 6:18 PM EDT/Newsday, NY
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) _ The former president of a jewelry manufacturer was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison on Wednesday for a fraud that cost Fleet Bank $15.76 million, federal prosecutors said.
Allen Bloom, who had headed Gold and Diamond Merchants, of Secaucus, was also ordered to repay the sum by U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson.
The same restitution order was issued last week to the company’s former chief financial officer, Phillip Capraro, whom Thompson sentenced to 16 months in prison.
Bloom, 47, of Marlboro, and Capraro, 51, of Highland Mills, N.Y., both pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
Bloom admitted that he and others overstated the company’s inventory and accounts receivable to Fleet Bank, which ultimately gave the company a credit line of more than $20 million, prosecutors said.
Capraro admitted that he falsified account records and submitted documents overstating collateral, prosecutors said.
The bank discovered the fraud in the summer of 2002.
