A Gastonia man, 54-year-old Joseph DiBruno, was sentenced to federal prison for two years after being convicted of bank fraud, prosecutors said Wednesday.
According to Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, the federal sentence is DiBruno's second federal fraud conviction.
His first came in 2008, when DiBruno was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering conspiracy and concealment of assets.
In May 2020, he was approved for home confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following his release to home confinement, prosecutors say he attempted to obtain loans using false information on applications.
Between May and June 2020, he submitted about five false loan applications, seeking over $120,000. Prosecutors said DiBruno claimed he was employed as director of data analytics at a company called M.R.S., with a monthly salary of $8,000.
On April 6, 2022, DiBruno pleaded guilty to making false statements to a credit union. He is currently in federal custody. At sentencing, prosecutors said that Judge Frank Whitney told DiBruno he got “right back in the game” and “never learned his lesson.”