Conn. oil company auditor pleads guilty to fraud
HARTFORD, Conn.—A Connecticut accountant has pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax charges in a scheme by officials at a Waterbury heating oil company to defraud Citizens Bank of millions of dollars.
Fifty-seven-year-old Dale Ciccarelli of Southbury pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Hartford. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 1 and faces up to eight years in prison.
Federal prosecutors say Ciccarelli helped F&S Oil Company officials fraudulently obtain lines of credit from Citizens Bank to ease the company's cash flow problems. Prosecutors say Ciccarelli falsified financial statements including one used to obtain a $4.5 million line of credit in 2006.
F&S owner Richard Stevens and company president Christopher Carr also pleaded guilty. Stevens was sentenced to five months in prison last March, while Carr awaits sentencing.
