Article

Criminal Fraud.

Note: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the conviction of Robert J. Merritt in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland (Smalkin, J.) for bank fraud and making false statements to a bank in seeking to obtain a US$ 300 million letter of credit from the First National Bank of Maryland to back a real estate purchase. Suspicious because the telephone number given by Merritt connected with an automatic answering system "that permitted the caller to connect to any of several businesses, one of which offered psychic readings," the bank officer contacted the Secret Service which undertook the investigation leading to the charges and conviction. Among the false statements was that a pension fund would provide a $200 million deposit for a CD which would serve as collateral for the LC. The organization represented to be a pension fund was, in fact, a telemarketing company with assets of $15,000.

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