Nik Patel sentenced to 25 years in far-reaching $179M Orlando loan fraud
Orlando area businessman Nikesh “Nik” Patel was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison in a $179 million loan fraud scheme that lasted from 2010 to 2014.
In handing down the sentence in Chicago, U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras said the scheme perpetrated by Patel was the biggest he’d seen in nearly four decades on the bench, the Chicago Tribune reported.
In a stunning allegation just days before the sentencing, federal prosecutors accused Patel of engaging in a new multimillion-dollar loan fraud — an additional $19 million — while he’s been on bonded release. He was originally arrested in September 2014 and had pleaded guilty in December 2016. Patel had persuaded Kocoras to let him remain free on bond because he was trying to recover money for victims of his fraud.
Patel was arrested a second time on Jan. 6 at the Gateway Kissimmee Airport. The FBI has said in court documents that he was trying to flee to Ecuador, where he sought political asylum, and planned to purchase one of the world’s rarest diamonds using $35 million in “dirty money.”
Read more: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/brinkmann-on-business/os-bz-nik-patel-sentencing-fraud-case-20180306-story.html
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