Former CEO of GDC Acquisitions Found Guilty of Fraud



According to a FBI news release, a federal jury in Brooklyn returned guilty verdicts against Courtney Dupree, the former chief executive officer at GDC Acquisitions, on charges of bank fraud, false statements, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

These charges arose out of the defendant’s scheme to defraud Amalgamated Bank, GDC’s asset-based lender, of $21 million in fraudulent loans. When sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison on the most serious charge. The jury also acquitted Thomas Foley, GDC’s former chief operating officer.

GDC, based on Long Island City, is a holding company that owns various subsidiaries, including JDC Lighting, a lighting distributor; Unalite Electric and Lighting, a lighting maintenance company; and Hudson Bay Environments Group, a furniture distributor.

The evidence included the testimony of GDC’s former chief financial officer and two GDC accountants, all three of whom had previously pleaded guilty to fraud charges arising from the scheme. At trial, the government proved Dupree and others gave Amalgamated Bank false financial information for GDC in which they had fraudulently inflated the company’s accounts receivables in order to obtain initially, and then maintain, credit lines totaling approximately $21 million.

For example, the defendant represented to Amalgamated Bank in writing in November 2009 that GDC had $25.2 million in accounts receivables when, in fact, it had only $9 million. The evidence proved that the conspirators inflated the accounts receivables by a variety of means, including by recording fake sales that had never taken place in the corporate books. According to the trial testimony, the scheme unraveled when one of the accountants turned himself into the FBI and cooperated in the government’s investigation in an undercover capacity for approximately two months.

To read the full FBI news release: click here.


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