Rockford judge convicts banker of fraud

ROCKFORD — A Rockford federal judge has found a one-time bank CEO guilty of 20 fraud counts.

Anthony D’Agostino is former owner, CEO and president of Commercial Mortgage and Finance Co. U.S. District Judge Frederick Kapala issued a written decision Friday in the case. The judge presided over the 79-year-old’s bench trial in September.

The Rockford Register Star reported that the judge wrote in his ruling that D’Agostino used the company’s good reputation to defraud investors of nearly $20 million. Prosecutors accused D’Agostino of lying about the health of the company in order to get new investors.

But D’Agostino’s attorney, Scott Lassar, has said the firm went under because of a “run on the bank” during the Great Recession.

A sentencing date for D’Agostino has not been set.