Solaroli Pleads Guilty To Money Laundering

U.S. Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of Arkansas
13 April 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LITTLE ROCK – Christopher R. Thyer, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas; Christopher A. Henry, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS-Criminal Investigation Nashville Field Office; David T. Resch, Special Agent in Charge of the Little Rock Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Christy Romero, Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP), announced today that Alberto Solaroli, 60, of Jacksonville, Fla., pled guilty on April 10, 2015, to an Information charging him with money laundering. The charge relates to a $120,000 wire transfer from One Bank and Trust of Little Rock, Ark. (Onebanc), to a bank in Florida where Solaroli controlled an account.

Friday’s plea hearing took place in Little Rock before Chief District Judge Brian S. Miller. An indictment charging Solaroli with bank fraud was dismissed after he pled guilty to money laundering.

“Deceiving banks through fraudulent pretenses ends up hurting our entire banking industry,” Thyer said. “We are committed to investigating and prosecuting those who take advantage of the good will of bank depositors. When people try to steal from banks by deceiving banking officers all banking customers suffer, and our faith in the banking industry is undermined. Those who try to steal from our community’s banks with lies rather than force will be prosecuted.”

In November 2013 a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Solaroli, a Canadian citizen purporting to be the owner of patents for technology related to engine technology for race cars, related to a $1.5 million personal line of credit he borrowed from Onebanc in 2007. In early 2007, Solaroli was introduced to a Senior Vice President at Onebanc by a friend who was also Onebanc customer. As a result of the introduction, Solaroli met with the Onebanc Senior Vice President in Jacksonville, Fla., where the defendant lived and worked. The defendant requested a $1,500,000 loan from Onebanc in April 2007, stating that his cash flow was tied up at the time. As a result of Solaroli’s personal written financial statement submitted to Onebanc, which listed his net worth as $169,473,680, the bank made a $1,500,000 line of credit available to the defendant to be repaid in one year.

Immediately after receiving the approval of his loan application, Solaroli instructed the Onebanc Senior Vice President to wire $120,000 to a bank account in Florida that Solaroli controlled, in the name of CET Racing. The defendant eventually received all $1,500,000, but never made a payment on any of the monies he received from the line of credit. In later efforts by the bank to collect on a judgment against Solaroli, Solaroli admitted under oath that the financial statement he submitted to Onebanc was false.

The money laundering charge carries a statutory sentence of not more than 10 years’ imprisonment, not more than a $250,000 fine, and not more than three years of supervised. Solaroli will be sentenced by Judge Miller at a later date.

The case was investigated by special agents from the IRS-Criminal Investigations, Federal Bureau of Investigation, SIGTARP, and the Federal Reserve. The case is prosecuted by First Assistant United States Attorney Pat Harris and Assistant United States Attorney Angela Jegley.