Judge hands down Moosally sentence

Photo

Moosally

Staff report

CLEVELAND

A federal judge has sentenced a former Trumbull County businessman to one day of incarceration, eight days of house arrest and three years’ probation after he earlier had pleaded guilty to falsifying documents related to a $400,000 federally backed loan.

Robert T. Moosally Sr., 64, of Chagrin Falls, drew the sentence from U.S. District Court Judge Patricia A. Gaughan, who also ordered him to make $255,000 in restitution.

Moosally pleaded guilty in March to a bill of information charging him with filing false statements in a 2005 loan application to Sky Bank, which is now Huntington Bank, on behalf of Ready Air, the company he then operated.

The U.S. Small Business Administration backed the Sky Bank loan, guaranteeing the bank that the government would protect up to 75 percent of the bank’s investment.

Moosally said in the application that Ready Air’s revenues were higher than they actually were and reported inflated business equipment costs to secure inflated bank disbursements, the U.S. Attorney said.

Moosally was president of ReadyAir, a fuel handler and service provider at the Youngstown- Warren Regional Airport in September 2005, when the Trumbull County commissioners approved lending $200,000 to expand ReadyAir’s business.

The company made only one payment before defaulting and filing for bankruptcy early in 2006.

The airport also lost money because of ReadyAir’s failure to pay rent and fees.

Moosally spent 29 months in prison for defrauding the former Union Savings and Trust Co. of Warren out of $1.2 million in 1985 by overstating the future income of his construction and development firm.

Moosally now runs a weatherization company that operates primarily in Pennsylvania.