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AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC at 410-209-4885  

August 24, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/md                                       

BANK FINANCIAL PLANNER SENTENCED FOR BANK FRAUD

Over $1.6 Million Diverted from Elderly Clients for Personal Use

BALTIMORE, Maryland - Thomas P. Gibbons, age 44, of Forest Hill, Maryland, was sentenced today to 51 months in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release for bank fraud, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett also ordered Gibbons to pay restitution of $1,647,351.40, in accordance with the terms agreed to by Gibbons and the victim bank.

According to the statement of facts provided to the court as part of his plea agreement on May 30, 2006, Gibbons, a financial planner with Bank of America, diverted funds belonging to his clients into his own bank account at Provident Bank between February 1999 and March 2005. As a financial planner, Gibbons had authority to purchase and sell securities on behalf of a number of elderly clients. Gibbons diverted the funds through a series of transactions, without the knowledge or consent of his clients or Bank of America.

For example, from February 1999 to November 2003, on 38 occasions, Gibbons forwarded the proceeds of the sales of portions of a client’s investment account at Bank of America Investments to himself. Acting under the pretense of being the client’s representative, Gibbons took the remittance checks for the sales of the investments to the Satyr Hill branch of Bank of America and caused cashiers checks to be issued payable to L.S.C.C., LSCC or L&S Computer Consultants. Gibbons deposited the cashiers checks into a bank account he controlled in the name of L&S Computer Consultants at Provident Bank. Gibbons then moved most of the funds from the L&S Computer Consultants account to a second account at Provident. Gibbons used the funds stolen from the client, totaling approximately $946,447.22, for his own personal use.

Gibbons used this same technique to steal funds belonging to other elderly clients at Bank of America. In all, Gibbons diverted and converted to his personal use $1,648,315.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the investigative work performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Rosenstein also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Bonnie S. Greenberg, who prosecuted the case.

This page last modified—August 24, 2006