Ex-Thrift Official Admits Defrauding Employer

The former president of the NAACP’s Los Angeles branch pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to three counts of defrauding a thrift where he worked as a high-level administrator.

Anthony M. Essex, one-time vice president and loan officer at Founders Savings & Loan Assn., admitted that he filed false financial documents with the thrift in 1984 to secure a $121,500 home loan for himself. Essex also said he submitted a commercial loan application to Founders for a friend a year later, knowing that some of the information on the application was false.

In exchange for Essex’s pleas, the U.S. attorney’s office agreed to drop seven other counts in the fraud indictment. Essex has also consented to cooperate in an on-going government probe into the troubled savings and loan, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory D. Schetina.

Defense attorney Robert Ramsey Jr. said an “11th-hour negotiation” yielded the plea bargain for Essex, the head of the NAACP in Los Angeles from June, 1988, to March, 1989.

“We were able to convince the government that if Anthony accepts some responsibility for causing the false document to be submitted, he clearly shouldn’t be prosecuted for fraud,” Ramsey said in a written statement.

Essex faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison and $750,000 in fines. His sentencing is scheduled for June 20.

Essex, who worked at Founders for about five months in 1985, was indicted last December on five counts of defrauding the firm by submitting falsified 1040 and W-2 tax forms on a home loan application. The 1983 tax forms exaggerated the incomes of Essex and his wife, Taurece, who was not indicted.

Last week, the government filed five new charges against Essex, claiming that he helped a friend identified as Janet Caldwell lie on a loan application for $50,000.

Although both Essex and Caldwell were awarded the loans, Schetina said, they defaulted on them. Essex lost his home. Caldwell is expected to be arraigned in federal court on Monday on fraud charges.

Founders is currently on the federal government’s list of insolvent financial institutions.