BOSTON, Sept. 16 2004 LAWFUEL – Best for law news, criminal law, legal, attorney, legal research The owner of the now-defunct ARK
Associates based in Quincy, Massachusetts has been charged by a federal Grand
Jury in a three-count indictment with bank fraud and making false statements
to financial institutions.
United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Kenneth W. Kaiser, Special
Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New England,
announced today that MICHAEL W. ALCOTT, age 43, of Scituate, Massachusetts,
was charged in an indictment with one count of bank fraud and two counts of
making false statements to financial institutions.
The indictment alleges that ALCOTT obtained a line of credit of $2.5
million from South Shore Savings Bank on behalf of his business, ARK
Associates, Inc. d/b/a Accounting Recruiters International, by submitting
false financial information to South Shore Savings Bank purporting to show
that ARK Associates was a profitable business. According to the indictment,
included in the false financial information ALCOTT submitted to South Shore
Savings Bank was a supposed “audit quality” financial statement for ARK
Associates for the year-ended December 31, 2002.
According to the indictment the financial statement was accompanied by an audit opinion on the letterhead of a certified public accounting firm bearing the signature of a person, David Kane, represented on the letter to be a Partner-Audit Manager of the
accounting firm. It is alleged that this audit opinion was a fabrication. It
is alleged that when South Shore Savings Bank contacted the accounting firm to
discuss the audit opinion, the accounting firm informed South Shore Savings
Bank that no one named David Kane worked at the firm and that the firm had not
performed an audit of ARK Associates’ financial statements. At the time South
Shore Savings Bank discovered the fraud, ARK Associates had an outstanding
balance owed on its line of credit of $2.496 million. ARK Associates ceased
operations in July 2003.
The indictment also charges that in or about June 2003, ALCOTT submitted
the same fraudulent “audited” financial statement to Boston Private Bank &
Trust Company in an attempt to secure a $3.5 million line of credit.
If convicted, ALCOTT faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years and
a $1 million fine on each count.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is
being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack W. Pirozzolo in Sullivan’s
Economic Crimes Unit.
SOURCE U.S. Attorney
