Former Hillsborough County Circuit and 2nd District Court of Appeal Judge Thomas E. Stringer agreed yesterday to plead guilty to federal bank fraud for his action in helping a young stripper hide financial assets.

Stringer retired just this past February after it became known that the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission was pursuing misconduct charges against him and the FBI was investigating. After Stringer was no longer a judge, the judicial commission dropped its ethics complaint.

Local media uncovered information last year that Stringer allowed New York stripper Christy Yamanaka to deposit many thousands of dollars into his bank accounts while she was in debt to other creditors by more than $300,000.

Ultimately, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed charges accusing Stringer of devising a scheme to obtain money from Wells Fargo Bank “by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses.” The criminal information on file alleges that Stringer bought a home in Hawaii in his name “even though the funds for the purchase would and did come from another individual.” Yamanaka has previously said that Stringer bought a house for her in his name.

Authorities claim that Stringer lied on a loan application, claiming the down payment was his own money – when it was, in fact, Yamanaka’s funds, hidden from discovery by other creditors. Yamanaka said Stringer helped her hide assets from creditors at a time when she had court judgments totaling about $315,000.

The now-dismissed ethics complaint also accused the judge of failing to disclose valuable gifts from Yamanaka, including Rolex watches, a vacation to Las Vegas and a trip to New York City, complete with high dollar hotel.

Stringer and Yamanaka met at a restaurant in 1995, when she was working as a dancer at 2001 Odyssey adult club. He later described her to others as his friend and business partner. He previously claimed that her money went into his bank accounts because she had bad credit.

The bank fraud charges carries a possible sentence of 30 years in prison, $1,000,000 fine and up to five years’ supervised release. The plea agreement, which is not binding on the court, results in a prosecutor’s recommendation of sentencing at the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines for that crime.

White Collar Crimes

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 9:38 am and is filed under Florida Criminal Law News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.