The convicted former TierOne Bank president and chief of executive Gilbert Lundstrom has filed new court motions seeking a new trial and an acquittal.
The two motions, one seeking acquittal and the other seeking a new trial, were filed in the U.S. District Court in Lincoln on Friday last week. The documents filed by a Chicago attorney David Collins are standard operating procedure after a conviction in a federal criminal trial.
Gil Lundstrom was found guilty in November 2015 related to the 12 of 13 white-collar fraud counts in TierOne Bank while he was CEO in 2010, after a two week trial. The prosecutors claimed Lundstrom managed a scheme to hide the bank's losses from regulators and investors, Omaha KETV reported. The former CEO said at his trial that he never knowingly provided false information to investors or federal regulators.
Lundstrom faces the prospect of a prison sentence of hundreds years if he receives the maximum penalties, Omaha World-Herald reported.
According to Journal Star, Lundstrom argued in the motion for a new trial that the court allowed the jury to consider improper hearsay evidence. He also argued that the jury improperly told jurors they could find Lundstrom had been willfully blind to wrongdoing. As a result, Lundstrom was denied a fair trial and argued he should get a new trial.
In another motion for an acquittal, Lundstrom claimed that prosecutors failed to prove each element of every count beyond a reasonable doubt. He said that the jury must have had a reasonable doubt.
In the motion, David Collins wrote that the government failed to prove Lundstrom's knowledge, participation and intent in each of the counts charged. He argued that the government's theory to prove them was based on "utter speculation."
Collins said that the government asked the jury to convict Lundstrom because of his position in the company and how much money he made, but neither was proof Lundstrom's knowledge to the fraud counts.
The government is expected to file briefs opposing the motions before U.S. District Judge John Gerrard rules.
Gilbert Lundstrom held CEO position in TierOne Bank in Lincoln for more than a decade. After the fraud counts case was disclosed, the bank was took over by the regulators. TierOne was closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp in June 2010, and sold to Great Western.
Lundstrom remains free until his sentence that set on February 24. After the November trial, he received permission to live in his second home in Florida.
