Local News in Brief : Former Bank Chief Sentenced to Prison
The former president of Empire National Bank in Westwood has been sentenced to three years in prison for fraudulently diverting bank funds to his use and approving a series of bad loans that investigators blamed in part for the failure of the bank in 1987.
William R. Ziegler, 49, was also ordered to pay $50,000 restitution to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. stemming from charges that he diverted about $50,000 to his own use and approved questionable loans that resulted in losses of more than $1.1 million to the bank.
“It seems clear that the defendant’s financial problems and his willingness . . . to abuse his power as president of Empire National Bank has at least contributed . . . to the demise of the bank, and as a result of that, many people have suffered severe financial damage,” U.S. District Judge John G. Davies said in sentencing Ziegler.
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