OKLAHOMA CITY – A former bank executive from Lawton admitted defrauding his employer of more than a million dollars “to support my gambling addiction.”
John Baptist Padilla, 44, previously was a senior vice president and commercial loan officer for BancFirst in Lawton, records reflect. His delegated loan authority was $350,000, “providing him authority to approve any loans” below that amount, the federal charge relates.
Between February 2013 and December 2019, Padilla recruited borrowers to apply for loans. Many of those borrowers “were not creditworthy and were in fact Padilla’s friends and associates,” the federal complaint charges. Padilla “often waived the credit report for those borrowers,” investigators discovered.
He told borrowers he would use the loan proceeds to invest in his real estate ventures and that he would pay the borrowers a percentage of the profit. Padilla “also assured these borrowers that he would make all the payments toward the outstanding balance on each loan.”