Opinion ID: 199023
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Counts 18 and 20 (Bank Fraud)

Text: 49 Ober was found guilty of two counts of bank fraud in connection with loans to the DGB Realty Trust, which Ober owned with Glenn Gates and William Upton. Count 18 concerned WCB's $15,000 demand loan to DGB, which was increased to $25,000 in December 1987, was never disclosed to or ratified by the Board of Directors, and was succeeded by a loan in the name of Upton that had not been paid off at the time of trial. Count 20 concerned Ober's practice of having DGB checks paid, even though there were insufficient funds in the DGB checking account, and held for long periods until there was enough money in the account to cover them--thus essentially providing Ober and his partners with undisclosed interest-free loans. The indictment alleged, and the evidence showed, that one check in the amount of $6,780.42 was thus held for over nine months. The evidence was sufficient to find Ober guilty on both counts. Ober concealed from the Board the plainly material fact that he was putting bank assets in his own pocket by means of undisclosed loans that put the bank at significant risk of loss and that were eventually repaid either incompletely or without interest. In short, the evidence on these counts, like the evidence on Counts 4 and 5, suggested that Ober treated WCB as his personal piggy bank, the assets of which he felt free to dispose of by loans to himself, his associates, or their designees. On that basis a rational jury could have found Ober guilty of bank fraud as we have defined it above.