Kevin J. O’Keefe, 48, Middletown, formerly of Bloomfield, Connecticut, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Alvin W. Thompson to one count of conspiracy to commit financial institution bribery and one count of bank fraud.
According to documents filed with the Court and statements made in court, O’Keefe was a Vice President at Fleet Bank (and Bank of America after it acquired Fleet Bank) in Hartford, Connecticut, from approximately October 2001 to February 2007. In pleading guilty, O’Keefe admitted that he conspired with Individual A, who was a lawyer in Connecticut, and Individual B, who was a real estate developer in Connecticut, to enrich themselves through the use of O’Keefe’s position at the bank. O’Keefe admitted that he and his co-conspirators corrupted the bidding process on distressed loans that Fleet Bank was selling. As part of the scheme, O’Keefe, Individual A and Individual B created shell companies through which to submit bids on distressed loans being sold by Fleet Bank and with which to receive and distribute proceeds from the scheme. O’Keefe admitted that he had access to and obtained confidential information belonging to Fleet Bank and that he provided that information to Individual A and Individual B so that it could be used to submit winning bids on distressed loans. In addition, O’Keefe admitted that he intentionally provided outdated information to other bidders involved in the bidding process in order to cause those bidders to submit artificially low bids. O’Keefe provided Individual A and Individual B with access to the most up-to-date information. O’Keefe also excluded bidders who he and Individual A and Individual B believed would submit competitive bids for a distressed loan on which O’Keefe, Individual A and Individual B sought to bid.
O’Keefe has acknowledged that Individual B paid him and Individual A approximately $100,000 on one loan that Individual B obtained through the corrupt assistance of O’Keefe and Individual A. In addition, Individual B agreed to pay a shell company, referred to here as “LA,” 15 percent of the profits on another distressed loan on which Individual B, with Individual A and O’Keefe’s corrupt assistance, had submitted a winning bid. The 15 percent of the profits on the loan that Individual B (through his own shell company) paid to LA amounted to more than $1.4 million, which Individual A and O’Keefe essentially split evenly.
In pleading guilty, O’Keefe also admitted that, in December 2005 and January 2006, he and Individual A engaged in a separate scheme to defraud Bank of America and a client of Individual A out of money. In that scheme, the client contacted Individual A, who was his lawyer, about getting a mortgage release from Bank of America for an old mortgage. Individual A contacted O’Keefe about it, and O’Keeke checked Bank of America’s internal records for the mortgage. O’Keefe found that no record of the mortgage existed within the bank. However, O’Keefe and Individual A conspired to defraud the client and the bank by telling the client that the bank would release the mortgage for $55,000, which the client paid to Individual A through his law firm’s trust account. Individual A then paid the $55,000 to O’Keefe. The defendant signed a release on behalf of Bank of America for the mortgage, which was provided to the client.
Judge Thompson has scheduled sentencing for August 29, 2008, at which time O’Keefe faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 35 years and a maximum fine of more than $1,000,000.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Eric J. Glover.
Rachel Dollar, the editor of Mortgage Fraud Blog is an attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles litigation for lending institutions and secondary market investors.