Former Hornets President Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud

Former Hornets President Spencer Stolpen may only have to go to Jail for 15 months vs. 30 years for pleading guilty to bank fraud & filing false information on a mortgage application. Man, he must've inflated his income a ton to get busted by 'the Man' !!!!!


Ex Hornets Prez Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud

 

why don't you just post the article...you know not everyone here subscribes


Ex-Hornets president pleads guilty
Plea deal in bank fraud case likely to give man a 15-month sentence
GARY L. WRIGHT
Staff Writer

Former Charlotte Hornets president Spencer Stolpen pleaded guilty Wednesday to bank fraud and filing a fraudulent bank loan application in a deal with federal prosecutors that will land him in prison.

Stolpen listened intently as U.S. District Judge Brent McKnight explained the charges against him and the maximum punishments -- 30 years in prison and a fine of $1 million for each charge.

Asked if he understood the charges and the maximum sentences, Stolpen replied: "Yes, I do."

"Are you in fact guilty?" the judge asked.

"Yes, I am," Stolpen said.

But Stolpen, 54, won't be behind bars for that long. His deal with prosecutors, struck last month, calls for him to be sentenced to 15 months in prison.

The judge allowed Stolpen to remain free while awaiting sentencing. No date for the sentencing has been set. It's likely to be in about three months.

"It's a very unfortunate situation," defense attorney Bill Diehl said following the hearing. "Spencer is a good man. He made a mistake. He's admitted he made a mistake."

Stolpen, waiting outside the courtroom for his hearing to begin, didn't want to talk about his problems with the law.

"At the appropriate time, I'll make a comment," he said.

Chris Swecker, who heads the FBI in North Carolina, said: "The FBI is committed to devoting substantial resources to bank fraud cases such as this one in order to protect the integrity of our financial system.

"Charlotte is a world-class financial center and white collar crime is one of the FBI's highest priorities in North Carolina."

Prosecutors say Stolpen engaged in a scheme to defraud banks while facing mounting overdue debts in 2002.

Stolpen is accused of forging a $110,000 check drawn on a checking account that he knew had been closed and depositing the fraudulent check into his personal checking account at Branch Banking & Trust Co.

Prosecutors say Stolpen then had checks drawn against the fraudulently created balance in his personal checking account and made payable to "his impatient debtors."

Stolpen also is accused of filing a fraudulent personal financial statement with BB&T in support of a loan application. The financial statement, prosecutors allege, listed more than $800,000 in liquid assets that Stolpen did not own at the time.

Diehl said Stolpen paid back the $110,000 to the bank within two months. The defense lawyer said Stolpen also paid $10,000 to cover the interest and the bank's legal fees.

"He's made good on the check," Diehl said Wednesday. "He's done all he could do to make it right."

Stolpen worked 13 years for Charlotte Hornets owner George Shinn. He started out as a teacher in one of Shinn's business schools and eventually oversaw Charlotte's first NBA team.

Stolpen, who served as Hornets president for 5 1/2 years before being let go by Shinn in 1996, has been in trouble before.

He was one of 14 men indicted in 1979 with conspiring to smuggle marijuana into Florida. Stolpen's part, according to the indictment, was agreeing to send money to a suspected drug smuggler in South America.

Stolpen denied the charge.

The charge was eventually thrown out. Police had made a paperwork error when they applied for court permission for a wiretap.

In 1981, Stolpen lost his law license in Florida. The Florida Bar had demanded his records but he refused on grounds that the records might incriminate him.

 

I didn't realize that . . I thought folks would be able to just read the article . . OK . .

 

That's their own lazy fault... type in your email and password you can get an account... nothing more than that, and anyone that isn't willing to go that far is too damn lazy to read the article anyways

 

Why don't y'all shut up and let sds do his thang?

 

Stolpen got busted for Kiting? That's funny.

If that's the case, then 60% of the bank's commercial/corporate/private lending customers should be in jail.

 

Verify, Verify, Verify........

 

He was associated with the Hornets. Fuck him

 

Thank you for the article!