Luke Sentenced to prison for bank fraud

Paul B. Luke, CPA 50, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced to one year in prison, three years of supervised release and $1.2 million in restitution on Friday, April 29 th , in U.S. District Court in Tacoma for Bank Fraud. Luke was Director of Finance, and later Marketing Director, at T&W Leasing, a Tacoma corporation in the business of leasing commercial equipment to businesses. He had been very active in several equipment leasing associations at one time.

According to records in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Luke created a fraudulent lease agreement in order to draw more than $1 million from a line of credit T&W had with Bank of America. The money was used to pay T&W's employees, and the company later defaulted on the $1.2 million loan and went out of business.

“ T&W, Tacoma, Washington ( 8/2001) Mike Price, formerly of T&W Leasing, Resigns from Westar Financial. (7/2001) T&W Mike Price charged with evading taxes on $3.2 million yacht. (10/2000) filed Chapter 11. Creditors meeting on 12-4-00 Seattle. Case # 00-10868 US Bankruptcy Court Western District of Wash. 206-553-7545. Debtor Attorney-Marc Barreca 206-623-7580.”

Price paid $442,661 in restitution and penalties after he pleaded guilty in attempting to evade about $280,000 in state taxes on a 73-foot yacht, the state Department of Revenue said. He also was sentenced to 30 days of community service by King County Superior Court Judge Charles Mertel.

Price was charged with submitting paperwork to the Department of Licensing stating he had paid $53,820 in sales tax on the lesser amount when in fact no sales tax was ever paid. The falsified paperwork enabled Price to dodge more than $280,000 in sales and watercraft excise taxes, prosecutors charged in papers filed July 5.

Price resigned in January 2000 as chairman and CEO of publicly traded T&W Financial, an equipment leasing company that subsequently went out of business.

Prosecutors said Price falsified paperwork to show that he had purchased the boat from a T&W Leasing Co., which they said was fictitious. In fact, he had contracted with Tacoma and Anacortes firms to build the boat for him, according to the charges.

Leasing News List