HARTFORD — Christopher T. Carr spread the blame around Wednesday for a $3.7 million bank fraud that he committed as president of F&S Oil Co.
Carr and his attorneys argued for leniency during his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Hartford, citing his acceptance of responsibility and cooperation.
Judge Alfred V. Covello did not spare Carr from prison.
Instead, he sentenced him to serve nine months behind bars, followed by nine months of home confinement, and then three years of supervised released.
Covello also ordered Carr to pay $3.7 million in restitution to Citizens Bank as part of his sentence.
Carr, 57, of Westport, pleaded guilty in May 2011 to falsifying a series of loan documents in order to obtain additional funding from a line of credit that Citizens Bank had issued to F&S Oil
F&S Oil closed without warning on March 7, 2008, leaving thousands of customers with unfulfilled service contracts and without oil they had paid for in advance. Carr had left the company two months earlier.
Carr told Covello that he only committed the bank fraud to try to save F&S and salvage a biodiesel production plant the struggling company was building — not to line his pockets.
He said he believed that the bank would be made whole once the biodiesel plant was up and running.
"I was trying to save the company. I was trying to build the biodiesel plant," Carr said.
Carr and his attorneys sought a sentence of home confinement, probation and restitution, citing his acceptance of responsibility, his cooperation with the FBI and federal prosecutors, his character and his family circumstances.
Federal prosecutors sought prison time.
"At the end of the day, Mr. Carr still admitted to a $3.7 million fraud," Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Schmeisser told Covello.
While Carr accepted responsibility, he and defense attorney Brian Spears also put some of the onus on others and portrayed him as a victim of circumstance.
The defunct oil company's owner played him, Spears said. The economy soured and so did the bank on the biodiesel production plant. The prices of corn and oil spiked. The biodiesel plant ran into construction and permitting issues and problems with the landlord and the bank.
The pressures and the desperation mounted and Carr embarked on a crooked scheme to keep F&S Oil afloat and complete the biodiesel plant.
Carr said he planned to use the profits from the biodiesel plant to repay Citizens Bank.
Carr detailed how Ray Stevens, owner of F&S Oil, filed false income tax returns and deducted personal expenses on the company's business returns.
He also provided evidence against Dale K. Ciccarelli, a certified public account who worked as an outside auditor for F&S Oil. He reported Ciccarelli signed false financial statements twice for Carr and prepared false returns for Stevens.
Stevens, of Middlebury, pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return in March 2011. Ciccarelli, of Southbury, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and assisting in filing a false tax return.
Spears noted both men received the same sentence: five months in jail and five months of home confinement. He contended Carr should get no prison time because his cooperation convinced Stevens and Ciccarelli to plead out.
Spears said Carr had determined to confess and cooperate when he retained his law firm in early 2008 after leaving F&S Oil.
"It was evident to us in the beginning that Mr. Carr had every intention of disclosing his offense, coming clean and making amends for what he had done," he said.
FEDERAL PROSECUTORS CREDITED CARR for coming forward before an investigation was opened, but Schmeisser argued that he could foresee one would be launched. The government contended Carr's cooperation was not as extraordinary as the defense made out.
Schmeisser said other employees at F&S Oil had already alerted Citizens Bank of the fraud. He said the news coverage of F&S Oil's collapse all but assured that criminal investigations would be launched.
Federal prosecutors did agree to a sentence range of 41 months to 55 months based on his cooperation.
Covello set a range of 12 months to 18 months, but declined to go any lower. He then imposed the split sentence and restitution order..
The judge made clear that he did not doubt Carr's representations.
"I believe you and I believe you can unravel this, and you, if anybody can, can make these people whole and we need to put you in a position to do that," Covello told him.
He ordered Carr to surrender himself to start serving his sentence next Wednesday.
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