Zeke had been in business for more than 10 years leasing golf carts to country clubs and other groups who enjoyed the sport in the Midwest. On the surface, his financial statements looked solid — thanks to a crooked CPA. But, in reality, Zeke was losing money each year, and he was resorting to commercial-loan fraud to keep afloat.

Zeke从事高尔夫运动已有10多年的历史，他将高尔夫球车租赁给乡村俱乐部和其他在中西部享受这项运动的团体。表面上看，他的财务报表看起来很可靠——这要归功于一位不诚实的注册会计师。但是，事实上，Zeke每年都在亏损，他正在利用商业贷款舞弊来维持生计。

Here’s an example of how Zeke gamed the system until he was caught. Zeke’s customer, a country club called Lucky Star, wants to replace its old fleet of 60 golf carts with new ones, which they rent to golfers each day. Zeke agrees to lease the carts for $360,000 over five years plus an option in Lucky Star’s favor to purchase the carts for $150,000 when the lease expired.

这是 Zeke 在被抓之前如何玩弄系统的案例。Zeke 的客户是一家名为 Lucky Star 的乡村俱乐部，该俱乐部希望用新的高尔夫球车替换其旧车队的 60 辆高尔夫球车，这些高尔夫球车每天都租给高尔夫球手。Zeke 同意在 5 年内以 360,000 美元的价格把这些车租出去，外加 Lucky Star 倾向于在租约到期时以 150,000 美元的价格购买这些高尔夫球车。

Zeke then goes to a financial institution and borrows the money to buy the golf carts from the manufacturer on similar terms to the lease agreement with Lucky Star. The bank takes the lease agreement as collateral and then submits a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filing with the secretary of state, listing the 60 golf carts’ serial numbers as collateral. Because golf carts aren’t titled vehicles, the state doesn’t do title searches. The bank has the responsibility to ensure that no one else has filed a UCC statement listing the golf carts’ serial numbers as collateral. But during Zeke’s 10 years in business, nobody checked to make sure that he hadn’t double-listed the serial numbers on another UCC statement. That was until Zeke’s new honest comptroller detected similar UCC filings and reported the suspicious activity to one of the banks, which called in the FBI.

然后，Zeke 去一家金融机构借钱从制造商那里购买高尔夫球车，条款与 Lucky Star 的租赁协议类似。银行将租赁协议作为抵押，然后向州政府秘书提交《统一商法典》UCC文件，列出 60 辆高尔夫球车的序列号作为抵押。因为高尔夫球车不是有产权的车辆，所以该州不进行产权搜索。银行有责任确保没有其他人提交 UCC 声明，将高尔夫球车的序列号列为抵押品。但在 Zeke 从业的 10 年中，没有人检查以确保他是否在另一份 UCC 声明中重复列出序列号。直到 Zeke 的新任诚实审计官发现了类似的 UCC 文件，并向其中一家银行报告了可疑活动，后者通知了联邦调查局。

Investigators found that Zeke had pledged golf cart leases to multiple banks and other lessors. Payments on the debts became untenable. When the business went bankrupt, the debts totaled more than $10 million, and the value of all collateral, including leases and golf cart inventory, was less than $5 million. The FBI presented the case to the U.S. attorney who declined to prosecute because he believed it would be too complicated for a jury.

调查人员发现，Zeke 已将高尔夫球车抵押给多家银行和其他出租人。债务的支付变得难以为继。当公司破产时，债务总额超过 1000 万美元，所有抵押品的价值，包括租赁和高尔夫球车库存，不到 500 万美元。联邦调查局将此案提交给律师，但他们拒绝起诉，因为这对陪审团来说太复杂了。

Zeke’s name is fictional, but this is a real-life case and just one example of how fraud can play out between borrower and lender.

Zeke 的名字是虚构的，但这是一个真实的案例，只是借款人和贷款人之间发生舞弊的一个例子。

Pressure can push borrowers and lenders to the brink

压力会将借款人和贷款人推到悬崖边上

Zeke probably didn’t initially set out to defraud banks. But when a commercial-loan borrower has difficulty making loan payments the situation can become a cat-and-mouse game. The lender tries to protect its interests, and the borrower attempts to keep its business afloat by delaying payments, obtaining additional financing from the same bank or another, or devising intricate schemes that delay the inevitable. This high-pressure situation can easily cross the line into fraud for the lender or the borrower. Commercial loan fraud can take different forms. Below are some of the types of fraud that we’ve seen.

Zeke 最初可能并没有打算诈骗银行。但是，当商业贷款借款人难以偿还贷款时，情况可能会变成一场猫捉老鼠的游戏。贷款人试图保护其利益，而借款人试图通过延迟付款，从同一家或另一家银行获得额外融资或设计复杂的阴谋来推迟不可避免的情况来维持经营。这种高压情况很容易越界成为借款人或贷款人的舞弊行为。商业贷款舞弊可以采取不同的形式。以下是我们见过的一些舞弊类型。

Fraud by banks against borrowers

银行对借款人的舞弊行为

These are the least common type of commercial-loan frauds because there are fewer banks than borrowers. Here’s what we’ve seen when a bank isn’t dealing in good faith with a borrower:

这是比较罕见的商业贷款舞弊类型，因为银行数量少于借款人。以下是我们所看到的，当银行不诚信地与借款人交易时：

1. A borrower is fully extended on their loan and is having cash-flow problems. The bank says it will work with the borrower if they’ll take money out of their retirement fund, which will reduce the loan balance. Ordinarily, by law, a bank can’t access a borrower’s retirement funds. But once the borrower has withdrawn their retirement funds and reduced the loan balance the bank won’t work with the borrower but will call the loan.

1. 借款人的贷款已完全延长，并且遇到了现金流问题。该银行表示，如果借款人从退休基金中取出资金，它将与借款人合作，这将减少贷款余额。通常，根据法律，银行不能动用借款人的退休基金。但是一旦借款人提取了他们的退休基金并减少了贷款余额，银行将不会与借款人合作，而是会收回贷款。

2. Again, a borrower is fully extended on their loan and is having cash-flow problems. The bank asks the borrower for additional collateral before it will continue to work with them. But once the borrower provides additional collateral the bank won’t work with the borrower but calls the loan.

2. 同样，借款人的贷款已完全延长，并且遇到了现金流问题。在继续与借款人合作之前，银行会要求借款人提供额外的抵押品。但是，一旦借款人提供额外的抵押品，银行将不会与借款人合作，而是会收回贷款。

3. Once again, a borrower is fully extended on their loan and is having cash-flow problems. The bank tells the borrower that if they get a guarantor such as a parent or sibling the bank will continue to work with them. But after the bank gets a guarantor, it will call the loan and force the guarantor to pay any shortfall.

3. 再一次，借款人的贷款完全延长，并且遇到了现金流问题。银行告诉借款人，如果他们有父母或兄弟姐妹等担保人，银行将继续与他们合作。但银行得到担保人后，就会催债，强制担保人补足差额。

In these examples the bank is improving its position without providing any additional consideration. Because nothing the bank tells the borrower is in writing, rarely could the borrower force the bank to deliver or be penalized for their behavior.

在这些例子中，银行在不提供任何额外考虑的情况下改善其地位。因为银行没有以书面形式告诉借款人，借款人很少会强迫银行交付或因他们的行为而受到惩罚。

The borrower should get everything the bank says it will do in writing prior to the borrower dipping into retirement funds, providing additional collateral or obtaining a guarantor.

在借款人动用退休基金、提供额外的抵押品或获得担保人之前，借款人应该得到银行所说的一切书面承诺。

Fraud by bank employees against their banks and borrowers

银行员工对银行和借款人的舞弊行为

Bank’s funds diverted to bank employee instead of going to borrower

银行的资金转移给银行员工而不是借款人

This type of fraud is commonly executed by a bank employee on a client. The employee will usually choose a client whom they’re familiar with and who doesn’t keep good records. The fraudster employee will transfer an advance on a commercial or construction loan advance against the borrower directly either to a bank account controlled by the fraudster or indirectly through an invoice from a company controlled by the employee.

这种类型的舞弊通常由银行员工对客户实施。员工通常会选择他们熟悉且记录不佳的客户。员工舞弊者将针对借款人的商业或建设贷款预付款直接转入舞弊者控制的银行账户，或通过员工控制的公司的发票间接转入。

The bank or the borrower can catch this type of fraud early by comparing the amount of the loan balance on the bank’s books with the amount of the loan balance on the borrower’s books. They should always match.

银行或借款人可以通过比较银行账簿上的贷款余额与借款人账簿上的贷款余额来及时发现这种舞弊行为。它们应该始终匹配。

Obviously, the bank and the borrower must be religious about checking their books. And someone other than the fraudulent bank employee must be communicating with the borrower to confirm loan advances.

显然，银行和借款人必须认真检查他们的账簿。而且，除了舞弊性的银行员工之外，还必须有人与借款人进行沟通，以确认贷款预付款。

Shrinkage of a borrower’s collateral after being seized by a bank

借款人抵押品被银行扣押后缩水

Another type of fraud performed by bank employees happens after the bank has taken control of a distressed borrower’s collateral. A bank should dispose of a distressed borrower’s collateral in a manner that maximizes its value and then use the proceeds to reduce the amount owed to the bank. But if controls aren’t in place, crooked employees can steal the borrower’s collateral or sell it to relatives and friends at below-market rates.

银行员工实施的另一种舞弊行为发生在银行控制了陷入困境的借款人的抵押品之后。银行应以最大化其价值的方式处置陷入困境的借款人的抵押品，然后使用收益来减少欠银行的金额。但如果控制不到位，不正当的员工可能会窃取借款人的抵押品或以低于市场的价格将其出售给亲戚和朋友。

Signing a commercial-loan agreement can be a nerve-wracking experience for business owners.

签署商业贷款协议对企业主来说可能是一次令人伤脑筋的经历。

Fraud by banks against third-party vendors

银行对第三方供应商的舞弊行为

In a case in which Stone was a court-appointed Chapter 11 trustee, a bank had perpetrated a multimillion-dollar fraud against a third-party creditor. The bank got away with it and promoted the employee who committed the fraud to bank president.

在Stone是法院指定的第 11 章受托人的案件中，一家银行对第三方债权人实施了数百万美元的。银行逍遥法外，将实施舞弊的员工提拔为行长。

When this borrower took out a $2.5 million-dollar loan, he secured it with receivables that the bank thought had equal value. But more than half of the receivables were fraudulent, the borrower had debts in excess of $5 million and most of their listed assets were fraudulent. So, the chances that the borrower would pay the amount back, if the bank called the loan, were slim.

当这位借款人获得一笔 250 万美元的贷款时，他以银行认为具有同等价值的应收账款作为担保。但超过一半的应收账款是舞弊性的，借款人的债务超过 500 万美元，其大部分上市资产都是舞弊性的。因此，如果银行催收贷款，借款人偿还这笔金额的可能性很小。

A third-party vendor of the borrower happened to tell the bank it was considering extending inventory on credit to the borrower in excess of $3 million in addition to their existing inventory on credit of $2 million. Seeing an opportunity, the bank employee told the vendor that the borrower was a great customer, and it shouldn’t have any concerns about being repaid. The vendor delivered the extra $3 million inventory on credit, and the borrower subsequently sold the inventory at approximately his cost; the bank then seized the funds out of the bank account and paid down its $2.5 million-dollar loan, which left the third-party vendor high and dry.

借款人的第三方供应商碰巧告诉银行，除了现有的 200 万美元的信贷存货外，它正在考虑向借款人提供超过 300 万美元的信贷存货。看到机会，银行员工告诉供应商，借款人是一个很好的客户，不应该有任何关于被偿还的担忧。供应商以赊账方式交付了额外的 300 万美元库存，借款人随后以约等于成本的价格出售了存货；银行随后从银行账户中没收了资金并偿还了 250 万美元的贷款，这让第三方供应商陷入了困境。

In the bankruptcy proceeding, the bank employee probably committed perjury by saying that he’d never talked to the third-party vendor and hadn’t endorsed the advance of inventory to the borrower. The vendor couldn’t prove that it had relied on the lender’s endorsement, so the bank got to keep the $2.5 million they swept from the borrower’s bank account, and the vendor took the entire loss. The vendor’s position would’ve been strengthened if it had received the endorsement from the bank in writing.

在破产程序中，该银行员工可能犯了伪证罪，称他从未与第三方供应商交谈过，也没有认可向借款人预付存货。供应商无法证明它依赖于贷款人的背书，因此银行必须保留他们从借款人银行账户中划走的 250 万美元，供应商承担了全部损失。如果得到银行的书面背书，卖方的地位就会得到加强。

Fraud by borrowers against banks

借款人对银行的舞弊行为

The primary reason this is the most common type of commercial-loan fraud is because the number of borrowers is much greater than the number of banks. (That is, one bank could make thousands of loans to borrowers.) In this type of fraud, a borrower experiences a business downturn that causes cash-flow problems and results in it having difficulty meeting the most basic loan requirements, such as making payments to the bank as scheduled in the loan agreement. The borrower feels the pressure to engage in fraudulent activities to delay making payments or to get additional loan advances. Here are some typical frauds of this type:

这是最常见的商业贷款舞弊类型的主要原因是借款人的数量远远多于银行的数量。（也就是说，一家银行可以向借款人发放数千笔贷款。）在这种类型的舞弊中，借款人经历了导致现金流问题的业务低迷，并导致其难以满足最基本的贷款要求，如按照贷款协议中的计划向银行付款。借款人感到有压力参与舞弊活动以延迟付款或获得额外贷款预付款。以下是这种类型的一些典型舞弊行为：

Borrowing base certificate fraud

借用基本凭证舞弊

A bank lends to a borrower an amount of money equal to a percentage of receivables, inventory and work in progress (partially finished goods that have yet to be completed). For example, the advance could be 70% of receivables, 60% of inventory and 40% of work in progress or any other percentages as agreed.

银行借给借款人的金额等于应收账款、存货和在产品（尚未完成的部分成品）的百分比。例如，预付款可以是应收账款的 70%、存货的 60% 和在产品的 40% 或约定的任何其他百分比。

The borrower would report to the bank fraudulent amounts in any of these areas and prepare financial documents that appear to support the advance. The bank must ensure that the borrower’s provided documents are accurate.

借款人将向银行报告这些领域的舞弊金额，并准备似乎支持预付款的财务文件。银行必须确保借款人提供的文件是准确的。

Financial statement fraud

财务报表舞弊

Borrowers are required to provide lenders with financial statements of operations that contain no material inaccuracies. When a borrower has taken out a loan supported by business operations, it could feel pressured to give the bank fraudulent financial statements and/or delay providing them.

借款人必须向贷款人提供不包含重大错误的财务报表。当借款人获得业务运营支持的贷款时，他可能会感到有压力，向银行提供虚假财务报表和/或延迟提供这些报表。

Again, the bank must perform vertical and horizontal analyses of these statements to ensure they’re accurate and timely. These should include ratio analysis and comparison of accounts in the financial statements to accounts known by the bank such as deposits and loan balances. A good database management system with checklists and financial analysis tools allows the bank to keep track of their commercial customers.

同样，银行必须对这些报表进行纵向和横向分析，以确保它们准确及时。这些应包括比率分析和财务报表中的账户与银行已知账户（如存款和贷款余额）的比较。带有清单和财务分析工具的良好数据库管理系统使银行能够跟踪其商业客户。

Borrower sells bank’s collateral

借款人出售银行的抵押品

Another ridiculous case example we worked was a bankruptcy fraud in which a bank lent funds to a bankrupt farmer secured by his dairy cattle. Because the bank lent the funds after the bankruptcy, it had a priority interest. The bankrupt borrower, who had a gambling addiction, sold most of his cattle so he could still visit the casinos. However, because he was such a generous guy, he invited his neighbors to let their dairy cows graze on his property. Whenever the bank audited the farm to check on collateral for a $1 million loan, they always saw lots of cows.

我们工作中遇到的的另一个荒谬案例是破产舞弊，其中一家银行将资金借给一个以奶牛为担保的破产农民。因为银行在破产后借出资金，所以有优先利息。这位嗜赌成瘾的破产借款人卖掉了他的大部分牛，然后继续去赌场。然而，因为他是一个如此慷慨的人，他邀请他的邻居让他们的奶牛在他的农场上吃草。每当银行对农场进行审计来检查 100 万美元贷款的抵押品时，他们总是看到很多奶牛。

Letter-of-credit fraud

信用证舞弊

A bank issues a letter of credit and gives it to a borrower’s vendor to guarantee the vendor will get paid when the vendor delivers goods to the borrower. If the borrower has previously issued letters of credit to vendors but now the borrower’s financial situation has worsened so the bank won’t issue a new letter of credit, the borrower might be tempted to forge a letter of credit by copying a previously issued letter and changing the date, dollar amount and vendor.

银行签发信用证并将其交给借款人的供应商，以保证供应商在向借款人交付货物时将获得付款。如果借款人之前曾向供应商开过信用证，但现在借款人的财务状况恶化，因此银行不会再开立新的信用证，借款人可能会试图通过复制之前签发的信用证来伪造信用证，并且更改日期、金额和供应商。

Or a bank employee might be tempted to forge a letter of credit and give it to the borrower if the employee thinks the borrower is just experiencing a temporary cash-flow problem, and the letter will help the borrower recover.

或者，如果员工认为借款人只是遇到了暂时的现金流问题，银行员工可能会试图伪造信用证并将其交给借款人，而这封信将帮助借款人恢复。

The borrower might have bribed the bank employee, or the employee might genuinely want to help the borrower out of a tight spot. (See “Case of the empty crates - Finding a solution to letter-of-credit fraud,” by Milind Tiwari, CFE, Fraud Magazine, November/December2021.)

借款人可能贿赂了银行员工，或者员工可能真的想帮助借款人摆脱困境。（参见“空箱案例 - 寻找信用证舞弊的解决方案”，Milind Tiwari，CFE， 舞弊杂志，2021 年 11 月/12 月。）

High-pressure tension

高压力

Signing a commercial loan agreement can be a nerve-wracking experience for business owners who often face an uncertain future and can’t always comply with the terms of the deal. Banks, in turn, can simply call the loans whenever they “in good faith” deem themselves insecure.

对于经常面临不确定的未来并且不能始终遵守交易条款的企业主来说，签署商业贷款协议可能是一次令人伤脑筋的经历。反过来，银行只要“真诚地”认为自己不安全，就可以简单地收回贷款。

Once borrowers can’t meet loan agreement terms, they just want to keep their businesses afloat and banks need to ensure they don’t incur losses. The intense pressure can cause any of the parties to cross the line and engage in fraud.

一旦借款人无法满足贷款协议条款，他们只想维持业务，银行需要确保他们不会蒙受损失。巨大的压力可能导致任何一方越界并进行舞弊。

Banks must have controls in place to prevent the frauds we list in the column and effective database management systems to ensure borrowers comply with loan covenants and analyze the financial statements of borrowers to ensure they’re a fair presentation of borrowers’ business operations.

银行必须有适当的控制措施来防止我们在专栏中列出的舞弊行为和有效的数据库管理系统，以确保借款人遵守贷款契约并分析借款人的财务报表，以确保它们公平地反映借款人的业务运营。