David Paul Indicted by Grand Jury : * Thrifts: The jailed ex-chairman of CenTrust Savings is accused of involvement in a sham purchase of $25 million in securities by BCCI.
A federal grand jury has indicted David L. Paul, the former CenTrust Savings Bank chairman, on fraud charges arising from the alleged sham purchase of $25 million in securities by BCCI, authorities said Friday.
James McAdams, acting U.S. attorney for southern Florida, announced that a federal grand jury had issued the indictment against Paul, who was jailed earlier this week on contempt of court charges. The indictment listed counts of conspiracy and other crimes.
The indictment charges Paul with conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements, misapplying $25 million and causing false entries to be made in CenTrust records.
Also charged in the 22-count indictment were former CenTrust shareholder Ghaith Pharaon and William Christopher Berry.
Federal authorities have said Pharaon acted as a secret front man for the Bank of Credit & Commerce International. The international bank collapsed last year after allegations it engaged in massive bank fraud.
Berry is a former senior executive vice president in charge of the failed thrift’s investment department, McAdams said at an evening news conference.
A judge last week ordered Paul, 52, jailed for refusing to produce documents sought by the grand jury probing his thrift’s failure. The former banker is being detained at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center south of Miami.
CenTrust was taken over two years ago by federal regulators at a loss of $1.7 billion amid charges that Paul plundered the thrift at the expense of account holders.
“Paul and Pharaon are charged with willful misapplication of CenTrust money,” McAdams said Friday. “Such practices strike at the heart of the economy of this nation and must not go unaddressed.”
McAdams said the investigation into Paul and the failure of CenTrust is continuing and other charges are possible. He would not comment further.
Paul’s attorney, Aubrey Harwell, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment late Friday afternoon.
Pharaon, 50, a Saudi businessman and former BCCI shareholder, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington last November on racketeering charges.
In that indictment, BCCI founder Agha Hasan Abedi, 68, and BCCI Group’s acting president, Swaleh Naqvi, 57, and Pharaon were accused of orchestrating the secret takeover of Encino-based Independence Bank in 1985. The indictment charged that Pharaon posed as the sole buyer of the bank, when in fact he put up only 15% of the money to buy it. The rest of the purchase was secretly financed by BCCI, which deceived federal and state regulators in the process, according to Justice Department officials.
Justice Department officials have been searching for Pharaon, whose whereabouts are unknown.
