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Local News in Brief : Former Bank Chief Sentenced to Prison

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The former president of Empire National Bank in Westwood has been sentenced to three years in prison for fraudulently diverting bank funds to his use and approving a series of bad loans that investigators blamed in part for the failure of the bank in 1987.

William R. Ziegler, 49, was also ordered to pay $50,000 restitution to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. stemming from charges that he diverted about $50,000 to his own use and approved questionable loans that resulted in losses of more than $1.1 million to the bank.

“It seems clear that the defendant’s financial problems and his willingness . . . to abuse his power as president of Empire National Bank has at least contributed . . . to the demise of the bank, and as a result of that, many people have suffered severe financial damage,” U.S. District Judge John G. Davies said in sentencing Ziegler.

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