OKLAHOMA CITY – A former bank executive from Lawton who admitted stealing more than a million dollars from his employer “to support my gambling addiction” was sentenced to federal prison.
John Baptist Padilla, 44, was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for bank fraud, and was ordered to pay $1,092,135 in restitution to BancFirst, where he served as senior vice president and commercial loan officer.
Padilla admitted that between February 2013 and December 2019, he executed a scheme in which he recruited borrowers to apply for loans, many of which were not creditworthy and were in fact his friends and associates. He “often waived the credit report for those borrowers,” investigators discovered.
Padilla told the borrowers he would use the loan proceeds to invest in his real estate ventures and would pay the borrowers a percentage of the profit. In reality, Padilla used most of the loan proceeds to support his gambling habit while also using proceeds to make payments toward prior loans issued as part of the scheme.
In a process similar to a Ponzi scheme, Padilla “often used loan proceeds from unauthorized loans he had approved to make payments toward earlier unauthorized loans he had approved, thus enabling the scheme to continue undetected” for almost seven years. In all, his Padilla’s actions cost the bank more than a million dollars.
Criminal charges were brought on May 7 and he pleaded guilty June 17.
In announcing her sentence, U.S. District Judge Jodi Dishman noted the seriousness of the offense and that it had spanned several years. She also noted that the fraud Padilla committed against his former, long-time employer caused a significant loss to the bank.
The case was investigated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency – Office of Inspector General.