Businessman Sentenced To 10 Years For Bank Fraud, Must Pay $5.69 Million
In an example of the serious nature of Georgia White Collar Crime, a McDonough man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for bank fraud on Monday, February 11th, according to an Atlanta Business Chronicle report. U.S. District Judge Timothy Baiten also ordered the businessman to pay $5.69 million in restitution.
Jason Slaughter, 43 was president of S&W; International Foods, a Forest Park Company that sold meats and freshly baked biscuits. He was charged with 31 felony counts of fraud for his part in a scheme to defraud Branch Banking & Trust of approximately $6 million. By manipulating accounts receivable and inventories by more than 200 percent he was able to obtain a BB&T; line of credit for his company.
To justify the scheme, S&W; kept two sets of financial books – one they showed to BB&T; auditors, and one that reflected the true financial position of the company. The phony financial numbers enabled Slaughter to obtain a loan his company otherwise would not have qualified for. When the loan defaulted, the company assets that Mr. Slaughter pledged as collateral were found not to exist. An investigation by the FBI found that the bank lost more than $5.5 million as a result of Slaughter’s fraud.
Whether you are an individual employee facing a charge or investigation or are in charge of an entire corporation like Jason Slaughter was, lawyers, understand the complexity of white-collar crimes and how they are handled in Georgia and federal courts.