Former Bank @Lantec CFO found liable for fraud

Sept. 20--NORFOLK -- A federal court jury Friday found Michael LoCash, the former chief financial officer at Bank @Lantec, liable for fraud and awarded $1.06 million to an insurance company that covered bank losses from a Ponzi scheme.

After a three-day trial, the jury found that LoCash made misrepresentations to the bank when he pitched buying $2.75 million in certificates of deposit from a Michigan man he socialized with.

The Michigan man, Dante DeMiro, never sent the CDs to the bank and was later convicted of running a Ponzi scheme that involved the bank's investment and millions of dollars from other investors.

With interest and fees, the bank lost nearly $2.8 million.

LoCash and DeMiro had known each other for 12 years and socialized when DeMiro was in town.

LoCash's attorney, Barry Koch, told the jury at the start of the trial that his client was devastated upon learning that the bank had been victimized.

"His job was to protect the money in that bank," Koch said.

But questions were raised after LoCash resigned when bank officials learned that he had destroyed 22 gigabytes of data from his two computers, equaling hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, including hundreds of emails between LoCash and DeMiro.

The insurance company hired a computer expert, who recovered most of the data.

The jury found LoCash not liable for civil conspiracy, ruling that there was no direct conspiracy between LoCash and DeMiro to defraud the bank.

Federal Insurance Company sought $2.8 million.

Koch said after the verdict that his client was relieved that the jury found him not liable for participating in a conspiracy with DeMiro.

"I thought we had a good jury," Koch said. "They seemed to be very interested and paid attention in a very difficult case. They found he wasn't involved in the scheme to take the money from the bank.

"Overall I thought it was a fair trial all the way around."

An attorney for the insurance company declined to comment.

Tim McGlone, 757- 446-2343, [email protected]

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