The founder and former chairman of Mariner’s Bancorp, Edgewater, N.J., indicted by a federal grand jury in October for loan fraud, signed a consent order last month with the Federal Reserve Board that suspends and prohibits him from participating in the affairs of any federally insured financial institution.
The consent order cites the indictment in stating that Fred Daibes, in January 2008 to December 2013, worked with others in a nominee loan scheme to circumvent federal loan limits applicable to Mariner’s Bank, where Daibes was also CEO and chairman. It says Daibes recruited nominees to make materially false and misleading statements and material omissions to the bank to obtain the nominee loans, among them by concealing that Daibes was the beneficiary of the loans. Once receiving funds, it says, the nominees distributed the proceeds to Daibes. The scheme ensured that “millions of dollars in loans made by the Bank (the ‘Nominee Loans’) flowed from the nominees to Daibes,” whose beneficial interests in the loans was concealed from from both the bank and the FDIC, it says.
It also says that after the FDIC began investigating one of the nominee loans, Daibes and others created and provided a backdated sales contract to the FDIC that concealed the true nature of the loans.
According to the Jan. 29 order, Daibes and an accomplice were charged Oct. 30 by indictment with “one count conspiracy to misapply bank funds and to make false entries to deceive a financial institution and the FDIC, five counts of misapplying bank funds, six counts of making false entries to decide [sic] a financial institution and the FDIC, and one count of causing reliance on a false document to influence the FDIC.” It says each of the offenses is punishable by imprisonment for more than one year.
The consent order provides that Daibes’ suspension and prohibition will remain in effect until the indictment “or any superseding complaint, information, or indictment containing charges of a similar nature” is finally disposed of “or until modified, suspended, or terminated by the Board of Governors.”
Federal Reserve Board issues enforcement action with former chairman of Mariner’s Bancorp