FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
THOMAS JOSEPH COSAND PLEADS GUILTY IN U.S. FEDERAL COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Billings on July 2, 2008, before Senior U.S. District Judge Jack D. Shanstrom, THOMAS JOSEPH COSAND, age 41, pled guilty to bank fraud. Sentencing is set for October 8, 2008. He is currently released on special conditions.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
In March of 2004, COSAND entered the Billings Federal Credit Union to apply for an auto loan and was referred to a Financial Services officer. COSAND informed her that he worked for Auto Mall in Billings and wished to purchase a vehicle. He also claimed that he was in the process of purchasing a new home and his mortgage company did not want him to pull another credit report until financing was finalized. He claimed that his employer had pulled a credit report on him in February 2004 and he could get a copy of it if the Billings Federal Credit Union could use that report. The Financial Services officer received permission from her supervisor to base COSAND'S loan on the credit report he provided to her which indicated he had a credit rating of 809. On March 26, 2004, the Financial Services officer processed an auto loan and issued COSAND a cashier's check for $17,100.
On April 8, 2004, COSAND again spoke with the Financial Services officer about an additional personal signature loan. The Financial Services officer loaded the loan information based on the credit report COSAND had previously provided her. Billings Federal Credit Union then processed an additional $7,200 personal loan. Subsequently, the bank ordered a credit report for COSAND after issuing a cashier's check for this second loan. They discovered that the Transunion Credit report was vastly different than the credit report COSAND had provided. The Financial Services officer verified that had COSAND used his real credit report which was verified through Transunion, he would not have received the vehicle or personal loan since he had numerous civil judgments against him, several accounts had been turned over for collection, COSAND was delinquent in child support and other accounts, and has two repossessed vehicles. After repossession and sale of COSAND'S vehicle, the bank lost over $8,000, in addition to $7,200 on the personal loan.
A Transunion witness would have testified that the credit report was false and that the company ran the data entered into the credit report and could not identify a single individual who matched that data. Ultimately, Transunion does not know how the credit report was falsified, but verified that it looked extremely authentic and the actions taken by the banks were reasonable given the story COSAND provided.
COSAND faces possible penalties of 30 years in prison, a $1,000,000 fine and 5 years supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan M. Archer prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Secret Service.
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A copy of the Offer of Proof can be obtained by contacting Sally Frank at (406) 247-4638.
