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White Plains Entrepreneur Pleads Guilty to Conspiring
to Make False Statements to Financial Institutions
PREET BHARARA, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York, and JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant
Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) announced that TERRENCE CHALK
pled guilty today before United States Magistrate Judge GEORGE A.
YANTHIS to his participation in a conspiracy to make false
statements and representations to financial institutions in
connection with applications for loans, lines of credit, and/or
credit cards. CHALK also pled guilty to aggravated identity
theft for using another person’s Social Security number to seek a
line of credit from a bank. In connection with his guilty plea,
CHALK agreed to pay restitution of $750,000 to the victims of his
offenses.
According to the charging instruments in this case and
statements made in open court today at the plea proceeding and on
other occasions in this matter:
CHALK, 47, the principal of a White Plains-based
computer systems company, and others submitted applications for
loans, lines of credit and/or credit cards, in the names of
various business entities controlled by CHALK (the “CHALK
Entities”) that contained false information and representations.
Some of the applications falsely represented that certain Chalk
employees and clients were guarantors for the loans and/or were
owners and officers of the various CHALK Entities when in fact
they were not.
Included in the applications was personal
identification information, such as names, addresses and Social
Security numbers of the CHALK Entities’ employees, agents, or
clients, without the knowledge or permission of the employees,
agents, or clients. While seeking to obtain the loans, lines of
credit, and/or credit cards, CHALK and others met with
representatives of financial institutions and falsely represented
the ownership of the Chalk entities and the identity of the
guarantors and/or supplied false financial information.
CHALK is scheduled to be sentenced before United States
District Judge STEPHEN C. ROBINSON on December 2, 2009. He faces
on the conspiracy charge a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison,
a $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from
the crime and 3 years of supervised release. On the second
charge, aggravated identity theft, CHALK faces a term of 2 years
in prison, consecutive to any sentence imposed on the conspiracy
charge.
Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and added that the investigation
is continuing.
Assistant United States Attorneys EUGENE INGOGLIA and
KATHRYN MARTIN are in charge of the prosecution.
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