WKSU News: Head of Eastlake Credit Union sentenced to 14 years in prison

Monday, November 26, 2012 Head of Eastlake Credit Union sentenced to 14 years in prison Anthony Raguz of Mentor also ordered to pay $72.5 million in restitution by WKSU's SIMON HUSTED	Reporter Simon Husted

Anthony Raguz

Courtesy of U.S. Attorney Office

The chief operating officer who led a Northeast Ohio credit union to collapse with fraudulent loans has been sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Anthony Raguz, former head of St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union in Eastlake, was also ordered Monday to pay $72.5 million in restitution. Between 2000 and 2010, Raguz issued more than 1-thousand loans worth more than $70 million to fake companies and unqualified borrowers. Michael Tobin, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice, says the fraud was on a massive scale.

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“This is the largest collapse of a credit union in American banking history,” Tobin says. “The loss was in excess of 180 million dollars.”

Raguz pleaded guilty in September 2011 to bank fraud, money laundering and bank bribery.

The money will go to an insurance fund that paid back account holders 170 million dollars after Raguz’s credit union was forced to liquidate in 2010.