Bloomington Accountant Charged with Bank Fraud

Earlier today in federal court, the former senior vice president and chief financial officer for Centennial Mortgage and Funding, Inc. (“Centennial”), was charged with defrauding a bank of approximately $8 million through material omissions and misrepresentations concerning Centennial’s operations and mortgage loans entered by Centennial. Joseph W. Traxler, age 63, of Bloomington, was charged via an Information with one count of aiding and abetting bank fraud.

Allegedly, from 2007 through 2008, Traxler, an accountant, fraudulently used funds intended for mortgage loans to cover Centennial’s operating losses and to fund the company’s payroll and other expenses. Specifically, when a home buyer applied to Centennial for a mortgage loan, Centennial requested an advance of funding from one of the lines of credit it held with various banks. Once that lender approved the advance, funds were deposited into an account that Centennial used to make the mortgage loan to the buyer at the transaction closing.

Posted in: Internal Fraud