HOUSTON – A Houston stepmother and son were sentenced to federal prison time and ordered to pay nearly $13 million in restitution between the two of them after a scheme cost a California bank more than $6 million, officials said. This was the largest fraud loss in the bank’s 113-year history, according to the FBI.
Carlos Wydler, 49, and Leyla Wydler, 60, were convicted on multiple counts including conspiracy, bank fraud, false statements on credit applications, wire fraud and mail fraud, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick announced.
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On Wednesday, the U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sentenced Carlos Wydler to 7 years in federal prison and ordered him to pay $6.8 million in restitution to the bank and its insurer.
Two months ago, Leyla Wydler received an 11-year sentence and was directed to pay $6 million in restitution.
“The FBI prioritizes financial institution fraud because it is not a victimless crime. Although the Wydlers did not wield weapons or threaten tellers, they endangered the stability of the federal banking system and our economy,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner.
Prosecutors said Leyla and Carlos developed the fraudulent loan scheme after Carlos was hired as a vice president at the California bank in charge of the bank’s credit card department in 2007.
Leyla Wydler, who owned several Houston-area businesses including Globan Mortgage Company, Casa Milagro and First Milagro, would send credit card applications to the bank on behalf of borrowers. Carlos Wydler, who was employed as the Vice President in charge of the bank’s credit department, would then approve the applications for high credit lines and used “balance transfers” to take out cash advances.
Leyla Wydler also took a fee for processing the applications.
“Greed and deception were at the heart of the Wydler’s scheme, which took advantage of their positions of trust within the banking industry,” said Inspector in Charge Adrian Gonzalez of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS). “This case demonstrates that the USPIS remains resolute in our mission to bring to justice those who fraudulently use the nation’s mail system in the furtherance of their deceptive schemes.”
The FBI also revealed during the trial that the Wydlers developed a real estate project in Houston and used the “balance transfer” program to fiance investors in their projects.
Prosecutors told the jury the bank did not know or approve the fee-sharing or real estate financing arrangements.
Over the span of a year, hundreds of loan applications were faxed or emailed from Leyla Wydler’s businesses in Houston to Carlos Wydler at the bank in California. Many contained falsified income information and supporting documents about borrower’s employment, income and assets.
Two witnesses testified that Leyla Wydler regularly inserted falsified information on loan applications, in some cases, using white-out.
Leyla Wydler took more than $1.4 million in loan processing fees, while Carlos Wydler approved more than $600,000 in unauthorized loans to family members.
More than half of the Texas borrowers processed through the Wydler-family business in Houston defaulted on their loans, resulting in a $6 million loss for the bank.
The defense argued that Carlos Wydler followed the bank’s policy in his approval decisions. Leyla Wydler contested that she did not know that the information that she was providing was falsified information.
After about seven hours, a federal jury convicted the pair in March 2017.