LOCAL : Newport Beach Pair Sentenced in $13-Million S&L; Loan Fraud
A Newport Beach couple were sentenced to federal prison today for using false financial statements to obtain at least $13 million in loans from a California thrift, actions the prosecutor said were just the sort that have endangered the nation’s savings and loan industry.
U.S. District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. in Los Angeles sentenced Robert A. Buceta to five years in prison and imposed an 18-month term on his wife, Patricia L. Thibault. Gadbois said Thibault received a “distinctly lenient” sentence so that she can care for their 6-year-old daughter.
Buceta and Thibault pleaded guilty last August to making false statements on documents they submitted to financial institutions in order to obtain the loans. Today, their lawyers blamed the bad loans on the thrifts for failing to underwrite or fully investigate the transactions.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Carolyn J. Kubota admitted the thrifts might have been “sloppy,” but said Buceta and Thibault still engineered a fraud scheme that deserved punishment.
“It’s exactly this type of activity the savings and loan debacle is made of,” Kubota said.
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