Eight charged in scheme to defraud Ex-Im Bank

Eight charged in scheme to defraud Ex-Im Bank    The U.S. Justice Department said eight defendants have been charged in connection with an $80 million scheme to defraud the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
   Five of the eight individuals charged have pleaded guilty in connection with a scheme involving $80 million worth of fraudulent loan transactions between companies located in the Philippines and United States lending banks, in which the Ex-Im Bank acted as guarantor or insurer.
   As part of the scheme, a loan broker in the Philippines assisted borrowers in executing loan agreements with the lending banks and in obtaining loan guarantees or insurance policies from the Ex-Im Bank as part of the loan agreements.
   The loan broker then recruited U.S. exporters for the purpose of purchasing U.S. goods and shipping those goods to the Philippine borrowers, and then instructed the exporters to prepare false shipping documents and submit those false documents to the lending banks to make it appear that they had purchased and shipped goods.
   The Justice Department said, in reality, the exporters did not purchase the goods called for in the loan agreements, and instead misappropriated a majority of the loan proceeds.
   The Ex-Im Bank, an independent U.S. agency, is the official export credit agency and issues loan guarantees and insurance to U.S. banks on behalf of creditworthy foreign companies for the purpose of purchasing U.S. goods. Once the Ex-Im Bank issues a loan guarantee or insurance policy, if the foreign borrower defaults on its loan repayments, the Ex-Im Bank pays the lender the amount of the outstanding loan.
   The criminal investigation was initiated by the Ex-Im Bank when it submitted a criminal referral to the Justice Department.