Federal prosecutors never found a good reason why former Wilmington Trust Company executive John W. Flowers stole nearly $1.4 million from the Delaware-based company over a period spanning more than a decade.
But they do have a word for it — greed.
“He was just spending” the money, Ferris Wharton, an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware, told MortgageDaily.com. “There was no gambling, no drug habit, no addiction to prostitutes or anything like that.
“What he told investigators that he wanted to live a better lifestyle,” Wharton said.
Flowers, 58, has plead guilty to one count of bank fraud. U.S. District Judge Kent Jordan sentenced Flowers, who was a vice president at Wilmington Trust, to five years and three months in federal prison.
Jordan also ordered Flowers to make full restitution for the money he stole.
Flowers has signed over his $242,000 pension plan to the federal government but still owes more than $1 million, Wharton said.
Flowers’ lawyer, Edmund D. Lyons, could not be reached to comment. A voice mail message at his Delaware office indicated he is out of town for the week.
Flowers showed no regret during his sentencing hearing before Jordan, Wharton said.
“He did not apologize or show any sign of remorse,” he said.
According to a written statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office Wharton was stealing the money over a 12-year period, from 1991 to 2003.
In the statement U.S. Attorney Colm F. Connolly said Flowers “withdrew funds from an internal Wilmington Trust Company account and deposited them into his own account.”
Flowers made the withdrawals and subsequent deposits into his personal account every month the scheme was in effect except for one, August of 1999.
“The amounts taken in each instance varied between $2,500 to $9,900, and the number of thefts in any given month varied between one and three,” Connolly said.
Wharton said Flowers covered up the transfers by creating and submitting phony paperwork. Bank security officers discovered the thefts after a routine audit indicated potential problems.
The bank then turned the case over to U.S. Secret Service agents, who worked on the investigation in concert with federal prosecutors.
No customers were impacted, Wharton said.
Even after the fraud was detected and Flowers surrendered his pension fund he continued to spend money, Wharton said.
For instance, Flowers sold a beach house for $162,000. But instead of turning that money over to prosecutors to pay toward his restitution Flowers paid off credit cards, car and student loans and forked over nearly $20,000 to pay for his daughters wedding, Wharton said.
Spending that money likely earned him even more jail time, Wharton said.
Flowers had run debt on the credit cards after the thefts were discovered and he was fired from his job, Wharton said.
“He lived on credit card purchases…after he lost his job,” he said.
Court documents show that Flowers is required to pay at least $500 a month towards the restitution after his release from prison.
