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A Portola Valley man has been indicted on charges of bank fraud and money laundering in connection with a car business he helped to manage, federal prosecutors report.
U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said Dennis Di Ricco, 56, the former chief financial officer of Fleetcars.com Inc., was indicted by a federal grand jury on July 20 on five counts of bank fraud and four counts of money laundering. The indictment was issued under seal and was unsealed on Oct. 17.
Fleetcars bought large fleets of used cars from rental car companies and sold the cars in smaller lots to retail car dealers, Mr. Ryan said. Mr. Di Ricco is accused of defrauding Wells Fargo Bank by submitting false loan applications in 2001.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Di Ricco told the bank that arrangements had been put in place to sell certain cars that were being used to secure the loan. In fact, those car sales had already been used to secure earlier loans, according to the indictment.
Mr. Di Ricco is also accused of hiding car sales from Wells Fargo by depositing proceeds from sales financed by Wells Fargo into an account at a different bank.
Mr. Ryan said Mr. Di Ricco’s next court appearance will be before U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Nov. 7 to set a trial date.