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Restaurant Owner Admits $21Mil Fraud Against Five Star Bank

A Pittsford restaurant owner accused of defrauding Five Star Bank out of millions has pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering charges.

54-year-old Katherine Mott-Formicola will be sentenced on May 1st and could face up to a million-dollar fine plus prison time.

Mott-Formicola, four business associates, and nine of her restaurants were all named as defendants in a lawsuit filed earlier this year, and joined by Five Star Bank.

In court papers, the bank and later federal prosecutors say she and the others ran a check-kiting scheme, moving hundreds of checks between their various bank accounts in order to inflate their value.

They say Mott and the other defendants never had enough funds to cover those checks.

Mott-Formicola as part of her plea agreement admitted to signing more than 500 checks, defrauding Five Star Bank out of $21 million.

She also agreed to forfeit property including the shuttered Crescent Beach Restaurant on Edgemere Drive in Greece.


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