Federal prosecutors say a Town of Greece man has been charged with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud for operating an alleged Ponzi scheme out of a bank he managed.
60-year-old Derline Cunningham was a bank branch manager, first at Bank of America and later at Citizens Bank. One of his largest customers was Lucian Development, a company controlled by Perry Santillo, Christopher Parris and others. Using that firm and the banks where Cunningham worked, they ran their Ponzi scheme. Cunningham improperly extended millions in revolving credit from his bank to Santillo and Paris, keeping their scheme from collapsing. The banks lost nearly $336,000.