https://13wham.com/news/local/crescent-beach-owner-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-money-laundering-katherine-mott-formicola-edgemere-drive-greece-rochester-lake-ontario-lakeshore-restaurant-property-wintergarden-monroes-pittsford-scheme

Rochester, N.Y. — A local business owner has pleaded guilty to federal financial institution fraud and money laundering charges after being accused in a check-kiting scheme.

Prosecutors said Katherine Mott-Formicola, 54, of Pittsford, who operated 10 business accounts at Five Star Bank and seven business accounts at Kinecta Federal Credit Union, sent hundreds of checks between various bank accounts to fraudulently inflate the balance of the accounts between Nov. 29, 2022 and March 11, 2024.

Mott-Formicola would write a check from one account for a dollar amount greater than what the bank account actually contained. Then, she would deposit the over-valued check into another bank account that she controlled at a different institution, knowing that banks typically place funds into a depositing account before confirming the funds in the withdrawing account. Accordingly, during this delay, she would temporarily inflate the cash balance in her accounts at various financial institutions by writing over-valued checks that were still honored, despite the originating account having insufficient funds. During the course of the scheme, Mott-Formicola intentionally kited over 500 over-valued checks between her various bank accounts for the purpose of over-inflating her accounts. Furthermore, because the inflated account balance would only last until the depositing institution eventually discovered that the withdrawing account had insufficient funds, Mott-Formicola would kite additional checks into the withdrawing accounts to allow the scheme to continue without detection.

In March 2024, Kinecta ultimately dishonored Mott-Formicola’s latest round of over-valued checks to her Five Star Bank accounts and charged back the amounts. Because she had already spent approximately $20,907,000 from her various Five Star accounts that she did not actually have, the charge-back resulted in an approximately $20,907,000 overdraw balance. Mott-Formicola spent the $20,907,000 on her various business ventures and personal items, such as real estate. Five Star Bank was able to recover some funds, ultimately suffering a loss of $18,979,005.79.

Mott-Formicola owns the Crescent Beach lakefront restaurant property on Edgemere Drive in Greece, along with Monroe's Restaurant in Pittsford and The Wintergarden in Rochester.

She said last fall she planned to reopen Crescent Beach — which has been closed since 2013 — in May, but it remains closed. The property's future is unclear.