A grand jury in Tallahassee has indicted Roy Talmo, former chairman of First American Bank and Trust in Lake Worth, in connection with a straw-borrower loan scheme that defrauded the bank of $1.7 million.
The indictment, handed down on Thursday, was the first criminal action stemming from the 1989 failure of the bank — at the time, the largest bank failure in Florida history. Less than a year later, regulators seized CenTrust Savings in Miami, which topped First American.
Also named with Talmo as defendants in the eight-count indictment were Richard. L. Pelham, a former officer of Associated Mortgage Investors, a real estate company owned by First American; Tallahassee developer E. Lamar Bailey; and AMI employee James R. Guerino.
Bailey figures prominently in the scheme described in the indictment, which said he borrowed more than $1.7 million from First American to buy real estate and stock in a bank subsidiary.
On the March 1988 real estate loan, Bailey used a straw-borrower, or someone who obtained the $850,000 loan for him but passed the money along to Bailey, according to the indictment. The use of straw-borrowers is prohibited.
The indictment stated that on the stock loan, also in March 1988, Bailey borrowed $865,298 to buy 480,000 shares of a First American subsidiary, Communications and Cable Inc. Bailey borrowed the money and bought the stock to deceive bank regulators about the financial health of First American, with Talmo agreeing to repurchase the stock for the loan amount plus $100,000, the indictment said.
The repurchase deal was never recorded, so regulators did not know of it.
Talmo, who now owns a nursery in Palm Beach Gardens, could not be reached for comment. But his attorney, Steve Dobson, in Tallahassee, denied all the charges in the indictment.
“Roy Talmo has cooperated with the authorities concerning this investigation and has maintained his innocence since the very beginning,” Dobson said.
Pelham’s attorney, Deeno Kitchen in Tallahassee, said “Mr. Pelham didn’t commit any crimes.”
