United States v. Patrick Arthur Castro, United States of America v. Herbert Thomas Cotter

After a ten-week jury trial, Patrick Arthur Castro and Herbert Thomas Cotter were each convicted of one count of conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 ; seventeen counts of misapplication of bank funds in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 656 ; and five counts of causing false entries to be made in bank records in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1005 . Cotter also was convicted of three counts of submitting false loan applications in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1014 . Both Castro and Cotter appeal. We affirm.

FACTS

Castro was a vice president and commercial loan officer at Mitsui Manufacturers Bank (the “Bank”) in San Diego, California, during the time of the alleged conspiracy from June 1981 through July 1982. Cotter was a self-employed consultant who located loan customers and brought them to Castro to obtain loans from the Bank. The prosecution alleged approximately twenty-one loans were made by Castro, through Cotter, in a manner which defrauded the Bank.

Numerous loan applicants, many of whom lived outside the Bank’s San Diego lending area, described the same set of procedures for obtaining their loans. Many had financial problems and were referred to Cotter by mutual acquaintances or…