George F. Kozdemba, Falsifying Records, Illinois 2024

Chicago, IL - A federal judge sentenced George F. Kozdemba, 74, of Fort Myers, Fla., to a year and a day in federal prison for conspiring to falsify bank records to deceive the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Kozdemba, a former board member of the failed Washington Federal Bank for Savings in Chicago, pleaded guilty last year to a federal conspiracy charge.

U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall sentenced Kozdemba on May 9, 2024, and fined him $25,000.

Kozdemba was a member of Washington Federal's Board of Directors. The bank was shut down in 2017 after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency determined that it was insolvent and had at least $66 million in nonperforming loans.

The bank's board members made and caused to be made false entries in bank records and provided them to the OCC with the intent to deceive the agency and obstruct its examination.

Kozdemba's co-defendant, Janice M. Weston, 66, of Orland Park, Ill., was sentenced to three months in prison and fined $20,000 on May 6, 2024.

The federal criminal investigation into the bank's collapse led to criminal charges against a total of 16 defendants, including the bank's Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer, and other high-ranking employees, for conspiring to embezzle at least $31 million in bank funds.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/two-former-board-members-failed-washington-federal-bank-chicago-sentenced-prison