News

The following news release was prepared and issued by the U.S. Department of Justice:

WASHINGTON — Daniel Curran, 53, of Boynton Beach, Fla., was sentenced to 41 months in prison in connection with a $30 million scheme to defraud the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) of the United States, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor of the District of Columbia announced today.

Curran was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts. In addition to his prison sentence, Curran was placed on three years of supervised release, ordered to forfeit $140,000 to the United States and ordered to pay restitution of $23,156,828 to the Ex-Im Bank of the United States. The substantial assistance Curran provided to the government in its investigation and prosecution of others was taken into consideration at sentencing.

Curran pleaded guilty on June 8, 2007, to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of mail fraud. As part of his plea, Curran, the former owner of Dankim Trading Corp., an exporting company located in Boynton Beach admitted that from October 2000 until June 2005, he acted as a purported exporter in approximately $30 million worth of fraudulent loan transactions, falsified documents sent to U.S. banks and to the Ex-Im Bank, and misappropriated approximately $24 million in loan proceeds. Curran admitted keeping approximately $400,000 of those proceeds and transferring approximately $23 million to bank accounts owned or controlled by a co-conspirator in the Philippines.

Curran's sentencing is part of a broader investigation into an $80 million scheme to defraud the Ex-Im Bank between November 1999 and December 2005. To date, six individuals — Curran, David Villongco, Edward Chua, Robert Delgado, Christina Song and Jaime Galvez — have pleaded guilty for their involvement in the fraud scheme. Villongco was sentenced on Feb. 29, 2008, to 33 months in prison; Galvez was sentenced on Jan.7, 2008, to one year in prison; and Delgado was sentenced on Oct. 5, 2007, to two years in prison. In addition, four other individuals — Marilyn Ong, Ildefonso Ong, Nelson Ti and Joseph Tirona — have been indicted by a federal grand jury sitting in the District of Columbia for their alleged involvement in the scheme.

These cases are being investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Los Angeles Division and the FBI's Washington Field Office. The cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Hank Bond Walther of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and Michael K. Atkinson, Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia.