According to the San Antonio News-Express, Anthony Regalado, 29, pleaded guilty to bank fraud on Thursday, September 13th. Regalado had deceived his ex-girlfriend Angela Salinas into embezzling nearly $100,000 for him. Salinas, 20, pleaded guilty to bank fraud earlier this year.
Salinas was a bank teller for BBVA Compass Bank in Alamo from July 2009 to August 2010, the plea documents state. Regalado was jailed at the time and started contacting her. He asked Salinas’s help and she bailed him out. After getting out of jail, Regalado opened an account at Compass. He then paid other people to open accounts which he controlled. Regalado persuaded Salinas to issue bank credit deposits to the accounts in his control.
Salinas told the FBI that Regalado had promised to open up a bar with the money she embezzled. He convinced Salinas that they could live together and she could work at the bar. He even promised to pay for her college education. But in truth Regalado had different plans. He used the illegally obtained money to get himself a new set of wheels and wasted the rest, which didn’t exactly make Salinas happy.
Both Salinas and Regalado will be sentenced later this year.
Bank frauds are considered federal offenses and can result in long prison sentences and heavy fines. But other types of white collar crimes can have serious consequences also. Even if you haven’t been charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars, you’ll still need aggressive representation to protect your rights. A knowledgeable San Antonio Texas white collar crime defense attorney should be contacted at once if you have been charged with a similar crime.