Burlington County Man Charged With Gipping Banks Out Of Millions
TRENTON, NJ (CBS) – A Burlington County man has been arrested and charged with allegedly orchestrating a large-scale check scheme that caused millions in losses to several New Jersey banks.
Luis G. Rogers Sr., 71, of Beverly, is accused of engaging in the "check-kiting" scheme, or creating artificial balances in his bank accounts by having checks be written against the accounts with the knowledge that the money was not there to cover them.
Rogers was the CEO of Lease Group Resources Inc. (LGR), an office equipment leasing company based in Mount Laurel, as well as the principal of several other business entities.
From Nov. 2012 through Apr. 2013, Rogers maintained and controlled numerous checking accounts in the names of the LGR Entities at three separate banks: Liberty Bell Bank, Roma Financial and Susquehanna Bank.
Officials say Rogers would deposit hundreds of millions of dollars into the LGR Entities accounts, amounts that far exceeded the companies' annual revenues.
In Apr. 2013, the banks discovered Rogers' scam and either returned or dishonored many of the pending checks and charged back the amounts of the checks against LGR Entities' accounts.
This resulted in those accounts being overdrawn and the banks sustaining millions of dollars in losses. Officials say Liberty Bell lost $3.7 million, Roma Bank lost $2.1 million and Susquehanna lost $3 million.
Rogers is now facing one count of bank fraud. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
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