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Mark Bruck of Westfield, Massachusetts, was the owner/operator of Advance Resins, a plastic recycling business. Over a period of several years, Bruck and his wife, Karen, had systematically defrauded the Bank of New England by submitting false information to obtain a series of loans. To provide support for his loan applications he asked his employees to inflate the warehouse inventory and to record phony sales in order to make his business appear more profitable than it really was.
Then, in March 1994, Bruck embarked on a new plan. First, he increased the coverage on his warehouse in Chicopee by $1.9 million. Next, he instructed his employees to move used equipment and extra inventory into the building. Then, he set fire to the warehouse. After the fire, Bruck again asked his employees to lie about the value of the property destroyed. He submitted the falsified documentation to his insurer, MassWest Insurance Company, in support of his insurance claim.
A joint investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Massachusetts State Fire Marshal and the Chicopee Fire Department uncovered the attempted fraud, and the case was referred to the grand jury, which indicted Bruck on arson, insurance fraud and bank fraud.
After a seven-day trial, Assistant US Attorneys C. Jeffrey Kinder and Ariane D. Vuono recently won a guilty verdict in Bruck’s case. Karen Bruck earlier pleaded guilty to bank fraud and was scheduled for sentencing on December 28. Bruck is scheduled for sentencing on March 1, 1996. He faces up to 115 years in prison and a fine of $1.75 million.
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