A family of victims of an alleged Ponzi scheme by William Apostelos filed a federal lawsuit against PNC Bank, stating that it missed red flags that Apostelos used his accounts in a suspicious manner.
The class action lawsuit recently filed by Dr. Rafael M. Cruz, Dr. Gloria Cruz and Dr. Rafael F. Cruz in Dayton’s U.S. District Court seeks at least $30 million in damages. The suit said there could be more than 100 members eligible to join the suit as plaintiffs.
William and Connie Apostelos’ federal criminal trial on 27 indicted counts related to running an alleged Ponzi scheme that cost hundreds of investors to lose tens of millions of dollars is set for January 2017.
“PNC had information indicating Apostelos was undertaking banking activities indicative of someone who was operating a fraudulent scheme and/or laundering money,” Cruz family attorney Toby Henderson wrote in the lawsuit. “Thus, PNC knew or should have known Apostelos was using the PNC accounts to launder money as part of some larger criminal undertaking.”
Apostelos’ sister and niece each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy this year and will be sentenced in March 2017. His attorney, Steven Scudder, was charged with aiding and abetting in wire fraud related to the Ponzi-scheme. Scudder’s arraignment and plea hearing has been continued several times.
Fred Solomon in PNC’s corporate communications office said Wednesday the company’s usual practice is to not comment on litigation.
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