NYU Senior Charged with Bank Fraud

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut announced that Hakan Yalincak, a senior at NYU who is scheduled to graduate on Wednesday, May 11, was arrested on an indictment charging him with bank fraud related to an alleged check-kiting scheme involving multimillion dollar counterfeit checks.  The press release (here) states:

[O]n March 14, 2005, YALINCAK sent two counterfeit checks totaling $17,748,000, purportedly from his business account at Bank of New York, to his account in a bank in Switzerland, UBS Zurich AG. The checks, which appeared to be official Bank of New York checks, were marked “certified funds.” On March 23, YALINCAK deposited a counterfeit J.P. Morgan Chase check in the amount of $25,000,000 into that same business account at the Greenwich branch of Bank of New York. The day before depositing the counterfeit $25,000,000 check, YALINCAK instructed UBS Zurich AG to transfer $2,500,000 to a second business account at Bank of New York that he controlled. UBS Zurich AG transferred the funds as instructed. On March 24, YALINCAK attempted to withdraw $1,700,000 from the business account into which the $2,500,000 had been deposited by UBS Zurich AG. By that time, however, Bank of New York had determined that the $25,000,000 check was counterfeit and froze all accounts on which YALINCAK was a signatory.

A New York Times report (here), Yalincak's parents donated $21 million to NYU last year, with some of the money to be used to endow a chair in Ottoman studies.  Whether Yalincak will make his graduation is an open question. (ph)