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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A former bank loan officer will spend 30 months in prison for his role in a scheme that raised money to buy tickets for the 2002 Olympic Games.
Troy Stringham, 35, also was ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in restitution plus 10 percent interest to his former employer, Provo-based Central Bank.
A co-defendant, ticket scalper Michael Douros, 47, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to felony bank fraud.
Douros admitted to obtaining from Stringham a series of bogus loan authorizations for recreational vehicles.
Stringham, a vice president at Central Bank, kept the loan amounts below $40,000 so a loan committee would not review the applications, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell noted Tuesday.
According to prosecutors, the conspiracy worked like this: Douros obtained bogus vehicle sales contracts and falsified loan applications in 2001 by using the names of his relatives as potential borrowers, forging their signatures.
Another unindicted coconspirator allegedly gave Stringham bogus sales contracts for the pending sale of a truck and other vehicles "when in truth and fact, no such purchase or sale was anticipated," according to charging documents.
Douros was given cash by the bank for each of the fraudulent applications, the charges state.
Federal prosecutors say Douros planned to use the money to buy Olympic tickets for resale, but they refuse to say whether he actually bought any tickets.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
