A Cleveland business owner was sentenced last week to 30 monthsin prison for pilfering nearly $1 million from thefraud-ridden St.Paul Croatian Federal Credit Union, which was liquidated by theNCUA in 2010.

Joe Spaqi, 61, of Cleveland, pleaded guilty to four counts offinancial institution fraud and two counts of money laundering inMay.

U.S. District Court Judge Christopher A. Boyko of Cleveland alsoordered Spaqi on Aug. 13 to pay $965,423 in restitution, accordingto court documents.

Spaqi aided and abetted Anthony Raguz, the former chiefoperating officer of St. Paul Croatian FCU in Eastlake, Ohio, and arelative identified only as P.S., in a scheme to defraud the creditunion between 2005 and 2009.

Spaqi carried out the fraud by requesting loans from the creditunion through Raguz. The Cleveland business owner did not followestablished procedures and made false statements to obtain theseloans, according to court documents.

Raguz approved multiple loans to Spaqi, Eclipse Bar and Grill(which Spaqi owned) or Luke Nue, an alias he used, for a total ofapproximately $965,422. These funds were paid in checks to Spaqi,Eclipse, Nue, P.S. and other unrelated third parties.

Spaqi also deposited fraudulent loan funds from Eclipse Bar andGrill into his personal share accounts, according to courtrecords.

Raguz began serving a 14-year federal prison sentence after headmitted to approving more than 1,000 fraudulent loans totaling $70million to approximately 300 account holders at the cooperativefrom 2000 to 2010. He also accepted bribes totaling $1 million toapprove loans.

Federal authorities have said the collapse of St. Paul CroatianFCU has led to a complex, large-scale, international investigationthat will continue until all those involved are brought tojustice.

So far, approximately 30 people involved in the St. PaulCroatian FCU collapse have been charged, convicted orsentenced.

In May 2011, about a year after the NCUA placed the credit unionin conservatorship, the U.S. Justice Department and Interpoluncovered nearly $6 million in fraudulent loans that were transferred toMacedonian and Albanian bank accounts. A federal court in April2011 ordered the Kapital Bank in Skopje, Macedonia to return $2.3million in funds that were purportedly proceeds from credit unionloans.

The NCUA saidit lost $186.4 million because of the credit union's collapse.