Apr.25, 2010

A Norwalk developer faces sentencing for his role in a bank bribery scheme in which authorities say he and his companies made about $6 million in profits.

Richard Girouard of Norwalk is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in federal court in Hartford. He pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to commit financial institution bribery.

Prosecutors say between 2001 and 2007, the 56-year-old Girouard and others engaged in a bribery scheme in connection with Fleet Bank's business.

According to the indictment, Girouard operated Girouard Associates, Inc. and Richard Girouard Associates, LLC, formerly located in New Canaan and now in Greenwich, while Mayotte was the chief financial officer of Girouard Associates and a business confidant of Girouard.

The indictment alleges that Girouard and Mayotte, along with Girouard Associates and RGA, conspired with Kevin J. O'Keefe, formerly a vice president at Fleet Bank, now Bank of America, in Hartford, and with Girouard's lawyer, Paul J. Aparo, to commit financial institution bribery, bank fraud, honest services fraud and money laundering.

The indictment alleged the purpose of the conspiracy was for Girouard and Mayotte and the other co-conspirators to enrich themselves through the use of O'Keefe's position at Fleet Bank by, among other things, corrupting the process by which Fleet Bank sold distressed loan assets, including using the confidential information of Fleet Bank to submit winning bids, and to conceal the conspiracy from Fleet Bank and others. The indictment alleges that in return for O'Keefe's corrupt assistance, Girouard and Mayotte paid O'Keefe and Aparo a total of approximately $1.4 million.

Girouard and Mayotte, and and their co-conspirators, are also created companies in order to submit bids on Fleet Bank distressed loans and to receive proceeds from the scheme. They also acted to exclude bidders whom they believed would submit competitive bids for distressed loans on which the two suspects and their co-conspirators sought to submit the winning bid. Girouard and Mayotte are alleged to have set up a shell company called Lexington Associates for the purpose of receiving and distributing a portion of the profits from the scheme.

Girouard asked in court papers to be spared from prison time, saying he is a first-time offender, has forfeited his home and paid restitution.

A former bank official, Kevin J. O'Keefe, has also pleaded guilty. Girouard's attorney, Paul Aparo, has pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud.