{"id":8890,"date":"2015-01-29T17:43:05","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T01:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890"},"modified":"2015-01-29T20:40:22","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T04:40:22","slug":"man-got-nearly-1-million-submitting-bogus-credit-union-loans-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890","title":{"rendered":"Man Who Got Nearly $1 Million By Submitting Bogus Credit Union Loans Arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.<\/a>OHIO<\/strong> – Sixty-year-old Joe Spaq<\/strong>i submitted bogus loans and the operating chief officer of the now-closed St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union approved them, officials maintain.<\/p>\n

Spaqi, of Cleveland, was arrested Wednesday. He was indicted on four counts of financial institution fraud and two counts of money laundering.<\/p>\n

But not before he was able to get loans from the credit union totaling nearly $1 million, officials said.<\/p>\n

Officials maintain that the credit union through thefts suffered about $170 million in losses.\u00a0Nearly 20 people have been convicted of crimes related to fraudulent lending that resulted in the credit union\u2019s failure, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Authorities allege that Spaqi aided and abetted credit union chief operating officer Anthony Raguz<\/strong> and a relative identified only as P.S. in a scheme to defraud the credit union between 2005 and 2009.<\/p>\n

Spaqi did this by requesting loans from the credit union through Raguz. He did not follow established procedures and made false statements to obtain these loans, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

Raguz approved multiple loans to Spaqi, Eclipse Bar and Grill (which Spaqi owned) or Luke Nue (an alias he used) which totaled approximately $965,422.<\/p>\n

Those monies were paid in checks to Spaqi, Eclipse, Nue, P.S. and unrelated third parties.<\/p>\n

As a result, the credit union and National Credit Union Administration suffered losses of approximately $965,422, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

Spaqi is also accused of depositing fraudulent loan proceeds from Eclipse Bar and Grill into a\u00a0personal share accounts, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

The credit union, headquartered in Eastlake, was closed and then liquidated in 2010 after sustaining losses of approximately $170 million, making it one of the largest credit union failures in American history.<\/p>\n

Raguz is currently serving a 14-year federal prison sentence. He is one of nearly 20 people have been convicted of crimes related to St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OHIO – Sixty-year-old Joe Spaqi submitted bogus loans and the operating chief officer of the now-closed St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union approved them, officials maintain. Spaqi, of Cleveland, was arrested Wednesday….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[1164],"class_list":["post-8890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-credit-union-thefts"],"yoast_head":"\nMan Who Got Nearly $1 Million By Submitting Bogus Credit Union Loans Arrested<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Cleveland man was arrested for submitting phony loan applications that resulted in the theft of nearly $1 million\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Man Who Got Nearly $1 Million By Submitting Bogus Credit Union Loans Arrested\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Cleveland man was arrested for submitting phony loan applications that resulted in the theft of nearly $1 million\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Justice Notebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-30T01:43:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-30T04:40:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/closed260.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"260\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"180\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Raul\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\"},\"headline\":\"Man Who Got Nearly $1 Million By Submitting Bogus Credit Union Loans Arrested\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-30T01:43:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-30T04:40:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890\"},\"wordCount\":315,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/closed260.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Credit Union thefts\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Home Main Slider\",\"U.S. Department of Justice\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890\",\"name\":\"Man Who Got Nearly $1 Million By Submitting Bogus Credit Union Loans Arrested\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/closed260.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-30T01:43:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-30T04:40:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"A Cleveland man was arrested for submitting phony loan applications that resulted in the theft of nearly $1 million\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=8890#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/closed260.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/closed260.jpg\",\"width\":260,\"height\":180},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"description\":\""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"American Justice Notebook\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/Justice-Scales.jpg\",\"width\":675,\"height\":231,\"caption\":\"American Justice Notebook\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\",\"name\":\"Raul\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Raul\"},\"description\":\"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Man Who Got Nearly $1 Million By Submitting Bogus Credit Union Loans Arrested","description":"A Cleveland man was arrested for submitting phony loan applications that resulted in the theft of nearly $1 million","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Man Who Got Nearly $1 Million By Submitting Bogus Credit Union Loans Arrested","og_description":"A Cleveland man was arrested for submitting phony loan applications that resulted in the theft of nearly $1 million","og_url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890","og_site_name":"American Justice Notebook","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook","article_published_time":"2015-01-30T01:43:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-01-30T04:40:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":260,"height":180,"url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/closed260.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Raul","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Raul","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890"},"author":{"name":"Raul","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0"},"headline":"Man Who Got Nearly $1 Million By Submitting Bogus Credit Union Loans Arrested","datePublished":"2015-01-30T01:43:05+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-30T04:40:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890"},"wordCount":315,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/closed260.jpg","keywords":["Credit Union thefts"],"articleSection":["Home Main Slider","U.S. Department of Justice"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890","name":"Man Who Got Nearly $1 Million By Submitting Bogus Credit Union Loans Arrested","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/closed260.jpg","datePublished":"2015-01-30T01:43:05+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-30T04:40:22+00:00","description":"A Cleveland man was arrested for submitting phony loan applications that resulted in the theft of nearly $1 million","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8890#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/closed260.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/closed260.jpg","width":260,"height":180},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","name":"American Justice Notebook","description":""Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." \u2014 Thomas Jefferson","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#organization","name":"American Justice Notebook","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Justice-Scales.jpg","width":675,"height":231,"caption":"American Justice Notebook"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0","name":"Raul","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c7f80bd073aca2abc2fc18e390e13d00b72d9d3a81bca4fd53e3567b02efee6f?s=96&r=g","caption":"Raul"},"description":"Raul Hernandez is a former journalist. He has worked as a newspaper reporter for more than 30 years at the El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso Times, Press Enterprise in Riverside, California and the Ventura County Star in California. He was a court reporter for more than 20 years.","sameAs":["https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8890"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8907,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8890\/revisions\/8907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}