The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted nine people, six men and three women, for fraud, bribery and money laundering in connection with the collapse of the $239 million St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union.
St. Paul Croatian was headquartered in Eastlake, Ohio. The NCUA conserved and then liquidated the credit union in 2010.
“This was a major fraud perpetrated against shareholders, including by people whose job it was to protect shareholders' interests,” said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. “It constitutes self-dealing on the most outrageous scale.”
“We are committed to prosecuting everyone involved in this scheme, whether they are senior management of a financial institution or someone who submitted false loan applications,” Dettelbach said.
Named in the indictments were Anthony Raguz, age 51, from Mentor, Ohio with one count of bank fraud, one count of bank bribery and four counts of money laundering; Koljo Nikolovski, age 48, from Eastlake, Ohio, with 10 counts of bank fraud, three counts of bank bribery and five counts of money laundering; Rose Ann Nikolovski, age 48, from Eastlake, Ohio, with seven counts bank fraud and three counts of money laundering; and Marko Nikoli, age 33, from Eastlake, Ohio with two counts bank fraud and one count money laundering. John Cendol, Jr., age 48, Ruth Cendol, age 55, Daniel Kocher, age 72, Edward Watral, age 37, and Jenifer Cerjan, age 33, are each accused of one count of bank fraud.
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