FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2003 WWW.USDOJ.GOV CRM (202) 514-2008 TDD (202) 514-1888 WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff of the Criminal Division and Fraud Section Chief Joshua R. Hochberg, the acting U.S. Attorney for this case, announced today that Susan Sinclair Wintermute, f/k/a Susan Sinclair, the former owner and director of Sinclair National Bank (SNB), was arrested on charges of making false statements to a federal agency in connection with her efforts to acquire control of the bank.
According to a criminal complaint filed at U.S. District Court in the Western District of Missouri, Wintermute and her then-husband acquired control of SNB in March 2000 after selling Sinclair Financial Group, Inc. (SFG), a Missouri financial services firm, in October 1999. SNB was later closed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and SFG filed for bankruptcy in 2001, leaving about 2,900 investors with more than $60 million in losses.
As charged in the complaint, Wintermute and her then-husband submitted an application to the OCC in December 1999, in furtherance of their efforts to acquire control of the national bank. That application required disclosure of certain information concerning their background, employment history and financial condition. In providing her employment history, Wintermute allegedly failed to disclose that she and her then-husband had been employed by Sinclair Management Services, Inc. (SiMS), an entity that owed SFG approximately $5 million. Wintermute also allegedly failed to disclose that she and her then-husband were owed $5 million by SFGs owner as a result of their transfer of SFG to the new owner some two months earlier. Based on Wintermutes application, the OCC allowed her and her then-husband to take control of SNB. SNB subsequently used insured depositor funds to purchase subprime consumer loan portfolios from SFG.
If convicted of the false statement charge, Wintermute faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The case, which is part of an ongoing investigation into SFG and SNB, is being prosecuted by Fraud Section Trial Attorneys William C. Athanas and Pamela J. Wechsler. Previously, James Scott Pope, former in-house counsel to SFG, pleaded guilty in a related matter involving SNB. The investigation is being handled by the Offices of the Inspectors General of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 03-315
Source: US Department of Justice
