Darien Man Charged in Multi-Million-Dollar Bank Fraud Scheme

A 59-year-old Darien man and two people from Minneapolis have been indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple counts of fraud and money laundering related to a complicated bank fraud conspiracy that ultimately cost the federal government millions of dollars, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut has announced.

Pablo Calderon was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport. The man and woman from Minneapolis, Brett Lillemoe, 45, and Sarah Zirbes, 39, were already arraigned. Lillemoe was released on $250,000 bond; Zirbes, on $100,000 bond.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office made the following complicated accusation (not proven in court) against the three defendants:

After creating phony export documents, the group approached various U.S. banks to take out export loans for banks in Russia. The loans were guaranteed by the federal government under a federal program to guarantee agriculture export loans.

Although the foreign banks were obligated to pay back the loans, sometimes they didn’t. Calderon, Lillemoe and Zirbes had collected fees from the banks and kept them.

On Nov. 17, 2011, Calderon told federal agents that Lillemo was his “supplier” and that he had “purchased commodities from Lillemoe.” In fact, the two had only exchanged paper transactions.

Calderon is charged with making a false statement to federal law enforcement officials, a crime which carries a maximum term of five years imprisonment if Calderon is convicted.

The indictment charges Calderon, Lillemoe and Zirbes each with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and multiple counts of wire fraud. Each wire fraud charge carries a maximum term of 20 years of imprisonment.

The indictment also charges each defendant with one count of bank fraud, which has a maximum term of 30 years in prison, and one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.