Former Collection Agency Exec Sentenced for Bank Bribery

A former executive of Oxford Collection Agency was sentenced Tuesday by a federal judge for his role in the bribing of a bank official. The sentencing is the latest in a long string of developments involving Oxford and its executives, including the controlling Pinto family.

Patrick Pinto, a former Oxford VP, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill to two years of probation, the first six months of which Pinto must spend in home confinement, for bribing an executive of U.S. Bank. Pinto also was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty to charges in June.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Oxford Collection Agency was a private financial services company that engaged in accounts receivables management, primarily debt collecting, with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Between 2007 and 2011, Oxford executives engaged in a multi-year scheme to defraud its lender, Connecticut-based Webster Bank, as well as its investors, clients, and the commercial debtors that Oxford collected from. Oxford’s victims lost more than $12 million as a result of this scheme.

The investigation also revealed that Oxford sometimes obtained and retained business with its banking clients by paying bribes and kickbacks to bank officials. As part of the scheme, Pinto and other Oxford executives made monthly payments of between $2,500 and $3,500, which were hidden in cigar boxes, to an assistant vice president of U.S. Bank in Ohio. The bank official received at least $24,000 in bribes from Oxford.

Pinto was arrested in December of last year. He was the last member of his family to face charges.

In May 2012 Patrick Pinto’s father, Richard Pinto — Oxford’s chairman — and his brother, Peter Pinto — Oxford’s president and CEO, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering and one count of wire fraud stemming from this scheme.

In December 2012, Oxford VP of Finance and CFO Officer Randall Silver, EVP Charles Harris, and COO Carlos Novelli also pleaded guilty to various charges. Wilbur Tate, the U.S. Bank official who took the bribes from Patrick Pinto, was arrested in February of this year.

On January 30, 2013, Richard Pinto, who is now deceased, was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment.