A Madison man has pleaded guilty to bank fraud in a scheme to fraudulently obtain letters of credit (L/Cs) that cheated financial institutions out of more than a million US dollars.

A US court heard that William Leckey engaged in the fraud in his attempts to salvage his business, Anchor Capital Services (ACS), which provided financing to companies looking to purchase heavy equipment.

High-interest leases

ACS provided customers with high-interest rate leases and funded the transactions through lines of credit with financial institutions secured by its lease agreements and related equipment.

After the financial institutions agreed to fund each deal, ACS' customers would make monthly payments to ACS on the lease. The company would then use those funds to pay down the line of credit with the bank.

False representations

The court heard that Leckey and others made false representations to financial institutions that purported that ACS had entered into lease transactions with customers for specified pieces of heavy equipment when, in reality, no such lease transaction existed.

As a result of this scheme, ACS received L/Cs worth more than US$1 million. Leckey faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years.

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