Former State Senator Admits to $74 Million Check-Kiting Scheme

James E. Doyle victimizes a Rhode Island credit union and two banks.

A plea agreement revealed a former Rhode Island state senator admitted that through his businesses he passed $74 million in worthless bank transactions in a check-kiting scheme using a credit union and bank accounts he controlled, federal prosecutors said last week.

When James E. Doyle II, 46, of Pawtucket was initially charged with bank fraud in August, prosecutors reported he ran a $550,000 check-kiting scheme that victimized three financial institutions, the $33.3 million Alliance Blackstone Valley Federal Credit Union in Pawtucket, Bristol County Savings Bank in Taunton, Mass., and Santander Bank in Boston.

Doyle, who resigned his Senate seat in January, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Providence to thirty-one counts of bank fraud and one count each of filing a false tax return and failing to file a tax return. He is the owner of Doyle Respiratory LLC and Doyle Sleep Solution LLC.

From early 2013 to February 2016, Doyle made deposits into his credit union accounts on checks drawn from his Santander accounts when he knew that the Santander account checks were drawn against insufficient funds, according to court documents. He would then deposit into his Santander account, checks drawn on the ABFCU accounts knowing that the credit union checks were drawn against insufficient funds.

To evade detection, Doyle admitted during Friday’s court hearing that he wrote worthless checks daily, at times undertaking more than 50 transactions per day.  He also used ATMs to lengthen the time it took for checks to be presented for clearing.

The investigation revealed that during the three-year scheme Doyle wrote tens of thousands of worthless checks between the credit union and banks where he maintained at least 20 accounts.

Doyle also admitted in court that for tax years 2013 thru 2016 he and his wife failed to report to the IRS more than $1 million dollars in income and failed to pay $305,426 in taxes due the IRS.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 18.