Montana Man Charged In Connection With $43 Million Fraud Scheme

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced the unsealing today of an Indictment charging TODD CAPSER with defrauding one financial institution of $43 million, and attempting to defraud at least nine other financial institutions of between $46 million and $52 million each. CAPSER was arrested earlier today in Billings, Montana, and will be presented before Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan of the District of Montana later this afternoon. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Todd Capser, as alleged, managed to mislead a Canadian financial institution into lending him more than $43 million, and tried to mislead other financial institutions into lending him tens of millions of dollars more, by creating mountains of false evidence of his solvency to represent himself as a legitimate business owner. Capser is now in custody and faces significant time in prison for his alleged crimes.”

FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said: “Despite the fact that this was a $43 million fraud scheme, the alleged illegal conduct was fairly simple. Omitting key information and falsifying loan documents are violations of federal law. To make matters worse, Capser went so far as to claim his daughter was terminally ill in an effort to explain behavior that would have otherwise attracted negative attention. Capser took a significant risk by conducting himself in this way. Unfortunately for him, he miscalculated the reward.”

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/montana-man-charged-connection-43-million-fraud-scheme