Former State Senator sentenced for $74 million check-kiting scheme
Federal judge baffled over why the credit union tolerated the former Rhode Island legislator’s bad checks for years.
A former Rhode Island state senator was sentenced to two years in federal prison for passing $74 million in worthless checks through his businesses in a check-kiting scheme using credit union and bank accounts he controlled.
But during the sentencing hearing of James E. Doyle II last week, U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith in Providence said he was “confounded by why the Alliance Blackstone Valley Federal Credit Union, in particular, tolerated Doyle’s misdeeds for years instead of putting an end to his daily pattern of passing bad checks,” the Providence Journal reported.
The Pawtucket-based credit union tells a different story.
“Once Alliance Blackstone Valley Federal Credit Union became aware of Mr. Doyle’s activities the management of the institution took the necessary steps to investigate and report his activities to proper authorities,” the credit union said in a prepared statement Wednesday. “Since that time we have fully cooperated with the federal investigation and we will continue to do so. Mr. Doyle is no longer a member of our institution. Because Alliance Blackstone Valley is a federally insured institution, none of the deposits of our members are now or have ever been at risk.”
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