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Former bank exec gets 70 months and restitution order

Los Angeles, CA
05/20/2019
Fine Amount: 
$7,519,084 restitution
Penalty Type: 
Issued by: 

Ataollah Aminpour, former chief marketing officer of now-defunct Mirae Bank (Los Angeles) was sentenced on May 20, 2019, to 70 months in federal prison for his role in a scheme that caused the Koreatown-based lender to issue more than $15 million in fraudulent loans, and ultimately caused the bank to suffer severe losses. Aminpour, who pleaded guilty in December 2017 to one felony count of making a false statement to a financial institution, was also ordered to pay $7,519,084 in restitution.

According to court documents, Aminpour held himself out as a successful businessman who could help people obtain financing for gas station and car wash businesses with little or no down payment. In some instances, Aminpour would identify a business for the borrower to purchase, and would negotiate the sales price. On the commercial loan applications that Aminpour would submit to the bank on behalf of the borrower, however, Aminpour would overstate the actual purchase price of the business, thereby causing the bank to issue inflated loan amounts that were not fully secured. For example, Aminpour made false statements to Mirae Bank in an application for a $4.2 million loan in connection with the purchase a car wash in Maywood. When he pleaded guilty, Aminpour admitted that, on the application, he falsely stated that the purchase price of the car wash was $6.65 million when the real purchase price was $3.25 million.

In his plea agreement, Aminpour further admitted that his scheme involved false statements in six loan applications submitted between November 2005 and February 2007 for loans totaling $16.7 million, and that losses on those loans exceeded $7.5 million.

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