NEW YORK — A Colorado man faces charges that he helped a wealthy Democratic fundraiser cheat banks out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Federal prosecutors said Friday that Shahin Kashanchi of Telluride provided fake documents that helped his brother-in-law Hassan Nemazee defraud three banks of more than $290 million.
Nemazee was the national finance chairman for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He later raised money for Barack Obama.
A look at Federal Election Commission records shows that Nemazee donated $1,000 to the campaign for Democrat Ken Salazar in 2004 and $1,000 to then-Rep. Mark Udall’s Senate campaign in 2007.
Kashanchi was to appear in court Friday in Grand Junction. He is charged with bank fraud, which carries up to 30 years in prison.
His lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Nemazee, was arrested on charges that he helped defraud banking units of Citigroup Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc of tens of millions of dollars.
Kashanchi, the owner of Blue Gecko Inc., a home electronic-equipment installer in Colorado, helped create fraudulent documents that Nemazee submitted to Citigroup and HSBC to win loans, prosecutors said.
One such document was a fake statement for a nonexistent account claiming Nemazee held $621 million in U.S. Treasury securities, they said.
“Many of the fraudulent documents submitted by Nemazee to Citibank and HSBC were created by Shahin Kashanchi, in consultation with Nemazee,” Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, said.
The Associated Press and Bloomberg News Service contributed to this report.
