CHICAGO, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Two ex-company owners were indicted for allegedly obtaining $190 million fraudulently from banks and financing companies, U.S. officials said in Chicago Friday.
The alleged scheme caused the lenders to lose at least $100 million, the U.S. attorney's office said. Besides the fraud charges, the indictment also seeks forfeiture of approximately $190 million.
Mark Anstett, 58, of Lake Forest, Ill., was president and co-owner of Equipment Acquisition Resources, Inc. of Palatine, Ill., "which purported to make semiconductor wafers and refurbish machinery used to make semiconductor wafers," a statement from prosecutors said.
His co-defendant, George Ferguson, 69, of Carlisle, Pa., was owner and president of the former Machine Tools Direct, Inc., of Carlisle.
Prosecutors said a third individual, Sheldon Player, who hid his involvement and role at EAR and whose wife was a co-owner, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. Player, who lived in Chicago before moving to Hoback Junction, Wyo., died last November.
The indictment alleged between 2006 and October 2009, Anstett, Ferguson, Player and others used EAR and MTD to fraudulently obtain approximately $190 million in financing from various lenders based on false representations about EAR's business operations, financial status, independence from MTD, and need for financing.
The money was switched from one company to the other to pay off other loans, prosecutors allege.
If convicted, Anstett and Ferguson face up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each of five counts.
The prosecutors' statement did not say whether the two were taken into custody.
