Scott Seligman (DepositPhotos)
Sterling Bank & Trust founder Scott Seligman, a minority owner of the San Francisco Giants, is implicated in a major fraud case.
Robert Snell of The Detroit News reports that Seligman:
Knew about and provided "encouragement" for a years-long criminal conspiracy involving a loan program that helped his family reap a $115 million windfall, according to federal court records.
Seligman has not been charged with wrongdoing, but the alleged conspiracy surfaced in a new criminal case that follows months of questions raised in a separate civil lawsuit about money generated by an initial public offering.
The case described by prosecutors includes details about tax cheats, money launderers and bank executives engaged in a scheme that implicates Seligman, 69, the wealthy scion of a prominent Metro Detroit family active in the sports, art and philanthropic worlds.
Seligman and family sold $114.7 million in shares in an initial offering of the Southfield-based bank in 2017, the story notes.
Federal prosecutors have charged former Sterling bank executive YiHou Han with bank and wire fraud conspiracy.
The Seligan Group's motto on its website is: "Family owned, opportunity driven." The site notes that Seligman, building on his experience with both Mid-States Mortgage and the family's growing real estate portfolio, chartered the Sterling Savings and Loan Association in 1984.
In the late 1990s, Seligman started selling its Michigan properties and reinvesting capital, developing and purchasing office properties in Orange County, Calif., the site says. The firm also owns office buildings in Northern California and Las Vegas, Los Angeles apartments and retail properties in California, Hawaii, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Virginia.
