BANKING

19 Charged in Massachusetts Bank Fraud: Nineteen people, including a Cambridge, Mass., city councilor, were indicted on charges of defrauding embattled Dime Savings Bank of New York out of $8 million to develop condominiums. The charges--977 counts of conspiracy, bank fraud, making false statements to a bank and bank bribery--were the most extensive to result from a two-year investigation of fraud at Dime, one of the largest real estate lenders in Massachusetts during the 1980s. Charged were a former loan originator for Dime, seven attorneys--including Cambridge city councilor and attorney William Walsh--four real estate developers, three real estate brokers and four investors. The suspects deceived Dime Savings into believing that buyers of condominium units had made large down payments when they had not done so, prosecutors said.