Two new cases of bank fraud, both connected to Indiana-based S&T Bank, came to light in the federal court system yesterday, and both involved substantial amounts of money.
U.S. Attorney Scott Brady announced a guilty plea to conspiracy by 27-year-old Nathaniel Graham of Bronx, New York. Brady says Graham and two others defendants used a fake Pennsylvania driver’s license to open checking and savings accounts at an S&T branch in Gallitzin, and they used a fraudulent personal loan for $40,000, which they deposited into the accounts. Co-conspirators Anthony Sass and Jacob Gunther each got $15,000 of the loan proceeds in cash, and in March of 2017, Graham traveled from New York to Gallitzin to withdraw the balance of the money at the bank.
Graham will be sentenced on December 19th.
The other case is a federal indictment against an Erie auto dealer named Andy Gabler, who is charged with seventeen felony counts of conspiracy, bank fraud, and wire fraud for avoiding monthly sales audits and concealing his financial difficulties from S&T, resulting in about $1.8 million in losses.
Gabler owns Lakeside Auto. His finance manager, Chad Bednarski, was also indicted. The FBI found that the fraud occurred over a four year period between January of 2015 and January of this year, when S&T alerted authorities about the deceptive practices. The bank filed about $7.8 million in default judgments against Lakeside Auto Group, which operated at three locations, but was only able to recoup about $3.3 million through a selloff of the dealership’s assets by a receiver appointed by an Erie County judge at the bank’s request.
