A New Hampshire attorney who federal officials claim lied to obtain millions of dollars with five different loans has been convicted of bank fraud and other charges, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. Joseph Foistner, 67, of Mont Vernon, N.H., was convicted Thursday of bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and making misrepresentations during bankruptcy proceedings in U.S. District Court in Concord. The verdict was returned by Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro, following a two-week bench trial. According to federal prosecutors, Foistner was a licensed attorney in Massachusetts when he used fraudulent means to apply for over $8 million in loans and laundered money between 2015 and 2018. Foistner didn’t have any paying clients and earned no income through his law firm, prosecutors said. He submitted misleading documents suggesting he was operating a lucrative law firm, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a news release. Foistner also made other false statements to obtain bank loans, prosecutors claim, including lying about whether he was involved as a party to any lawsuits and denying that he had an interest in other companies, and falsely represented he earned a salary by mischaracterizing loan proceeds as a salary. Each of the loans made to Foistner were backed by either the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Small Business Administration. Prosecutors claim Foistner also committed several crimes during chapter 7 bankruptcy court proceedings in 2017 and 2018, falsely denying that he held or controlled property owned by others when he actually controlled funds held in the name of a business, and making false statements under oath by lying about what happened to the proceeds of one of the fraudulent loans. Foistner is scheduled to be sentenced on April 4, 2022.
