DAVID VOREACOS - The Record
Wednesday, July 12, 2000
Two North Carolina men were indicted Tuesday on charges of defrauding the now-defunct Broadway Bank & Trust
Co. of Paterson by submitting phony documents to boost a time-share project in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Richard Hunsucker and William Burbage, both of Pinehurst, N.C., were charged with defrauding the bank of at least
$750,000 a decade ago through a series of loans to disguised -- or "straw" -- borrowers.
The indictment, returned by federal grand jurors in Newark, said Hunsucker was the majority shareholder of a South
Carolina real estate development company called Seaside Properties.
Seaside offered time-share interests in a resort development called Jade Tree Cove, and Broadway agreed in December
1987 to finance the project, the indictment alleged.
Between 1988 and 1990, Hunsucker and Burbage, a Seaside employee, recruited people to act as straw borrowers for
time-share loans in Jade Tree Cove, the indictment said.
Hunsucker and Burbage allegedly paid the straw borrowers $500 to complete various phony documents that were submitted
to the bank. The scheme caused the bank to disburse at least $750,000 and ultimately lose about $500,000, according
to the indictment.
Hunsucker and Burbage could not be located for comment in Pinehurst, N.C.
If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Winston declined to comment on the case.
Regulators seized Broadway Bank in March 1992 and sold the bank's $370.3 million in insured deposits to Hudson
United Bank. About 250 depositors lost nearly $8 million in uninsured deposits.
At least two other former bank employees have been convicted of federal crimes. In April 1999, former vice president
John McLaughlin pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and lying to federal bank regulators.
In April 1997, former assistant treasurer Raymond Stitz pleaded guilty to hiding paperwork from Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp. regulators during an April 1991 audit.
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