An Albertson man has admitted to stealing $30 million from a bank over a five-year span while he was the chief financial officer of a Brooklyn-based energy company.
Thomas Torre, the ex-CFO of Metro Fuel Oil Corp., pleaded guilty Wednesday at Brooklyn federal court to a charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
“Through his deceit and trickery, Torre defrauded New York Commercial Bank in an amount exceeding $30 million,” said Kelly Currie, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Prosecutors said the 63-year-old man schemed to overstate Metro Fuel’s accounts receivable in order to draw from a revolving line of credit issued by the bank from July 2007 to July 2012.
He and others allegedly misrepresented the true accounts receivable by deliberately failing to account for the cash payments received from customers and by creating fictitious invoice amounts, authorities said.
Metro Fuel filed for bankruptcy in September 2012 when company could no longer pay its bills. The company owed the bank more than $30 million by that time.
Torre faces up to 30 years in prison, plus fines.
