Anthony Raguz, a former credit union CEO who played a centralrole in one of the largest fraud cases in U.S. credit unionhistory, was sentenced Monday to 14 years in federal prison andordered to pay $71.5 million in restitution by U.S. District CourtJudge Christopher A. Boyko in Cleveland.

Raguz pleaded guilty in September 2011 to six criminal counts,including bank fraud, money laundering and bank bribery that led tothe collapse of St. Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union in Eastlake,Ohio, in 2010.

He admitted to approving more than 1,000 fraudulent loanstotaling $70 million to over 300 account holders at St. PaulCroatian FCU from 2000 to 2010. Raguz said he issued loans withoutrequiring collateral and knew the borrowers had few assets, noemployment history and often used fictitious names. He alsoaccepted bribes totaling $1 million to approve loans, according tothe original indictment.

In a letter to Boyko, Raguz wrote there was no excuse orjustification for the crimes he committed.

“I hurt a lot of innocent people,” Raguz said in the letter tothe judge. “In regard to some of the loans, I took outright bribes.I was gambling with other people's money in order to recoup mylosses for the foolish decisions that I had made. When my deceitwas uncovered, I tried to do everything I could do to makeamends.

“Within days of the disclosure, I starting [sic] meeting withthe agents and the accountants in order to unravel the web of mydeceit. I hope that my efforts at least achieved an accurateaccounting of what had happened. I also paid the government everydollar that I had. I agreed to testify against everyone who wasinvolved, and in doing so, I put my family and my friends atrisk.”

Fifteen relatives and friends wrote character reference letters,asking Boyko for leniency in Raguz's sentencing.

Raguz forfeited $1 million, cooperated with federal prosecutorsand agreed to testify against 20 people who have also been indictedon various bank fraud charges in the SPCFCU case. Some have alreadybeen sentenced; others have pleaded guilty or are awaitingtrial.

However, Boyko rejected a request from prosecutors that Raguzreceive a punishment in the mid-range of federal sentencingguidelines, which presumably would have given him a lightersentence, according to The Plain Dealer, a Cleveland dailynewspaper.

Boyko compared Raguz to a Jekyll and Hyde character – “anAnthony Raguz who crept out from the dark, pulled this off andcontinued to do this for a long time – an Anthony Raguz your familythought never existed,” Judge Boyko was quoted in the PlainDealer.

NCUA has recently reported its projected loss in the SPCFCUcase is now at $186.4 million, down slightly from its initialprojected loss of $186.8 million. NCUA's liquidation of the creditunion has so far netted $22.6 million in recoveries from all areasincluding loan payments and liquidation of cash accounts.

NCUA has filed 61 lawsuits against SPCFCU-related partiesclaiming monetary damages of more than $44 million. To date, NCUAhas recovered $1.2 million.

NCUA is working with the U.S. Attorney's Office to recover morethan $2 million that had been deposited into bank accounts in theBalkan Republic of Macedonia by Koljo Nikolovski.

He was another pivotal figure in the SPCFCU fraud case whopleaded guilty earlier this year to 18 counts of bribery, bankfraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to 18 years in prisonin April.

The NCUA also is expected to recover $16.7 million from A. EddyZai who pleaded guilty in U.S. District Federal Court in Clevelandon Nov. 5 to nine counts of bank fraud, bribery, money launderingfor his involvement in the credit union case.

Zai, 44, of suburban Pepper Pike, conspired with others,including Raguz, to submit false loan documents to defraud thecredit union of approximately $16.7 million. Zai also paid bribesand kickbacks to Raguz for using his position at the credit unionto approve numerous loans to Zai and more than a dozen businesseshe controlled and operated.

Federal prosecutors said some of these companies were createdprimarily to operate as a “safe haven” for credit union proceeds,while others performed little or no legitimate business.