Dora Woman Indicted for Allegations of Bankruptcy Fraud

Mildred A. Coston was indicted today in U.S. District Court and charged with two counts of making false oaths or accounts and one count of perjury.

According to the indictment Coston, 47, of Dora, Alabama, filed for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division on June 3, 2004. A bankruptcy trustee is appointed in Chapter 7 cases to administer the case and liquidate the debtor’s nonexempt assets. Coston was required to file testimony under oath in order for the Trustee to find out what had happened to more than $100,000.00 which was part of Coston’s bankruptcy estate.

In August 2005 Coston declared under oath that $75,000 was reported stolen by her daughter. The money was allegedly in a locked box in her daughter’s car truck which was broken into while the daughter was at the beach. On October 25, 2005, Coston willfully suborned and procured her daughter to commit perjury by repeating the false story about the theft.

“The Bankruptcy Court operates as any other Court with regard to fraud,” states U.S. Attorney Alice H. Martin. “Fraud as well as allegations of perjury are seriously prosecuted in federal court.”

The penalty for making false oaths is imprisonment of not more than 5 years and a fine of not more than $250,000, on each count charged. The penalty of perjury is also not more than 5 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

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