John McNamara

John M. McNamara (born 1940) is an American former businessman who was convicted of a Ponzi scheme fraud through gaining loans to a value of $6 billion from General Motors financing arm GMAC, to develop a $400M car sales and property development business.

Background The son of an Irish immigrant, raised in Port Jefferson, Long Island in the state of New York, McNamara was a devout Roman Catholic who was college educated.

Ponzi scheme No vans in McNamara's scheme were ever purchased, customized or sold. McNamara used the $400 million of money skimmed from the loans to finance the purchase and operations of 70 different corporations and partnerships, including: A report concluded that the fraud was made possible by organizational and relationship symptoms, as well as anomalies in the lending practices of GMAC, including: In 1995, three of those officials were acquitted of bribery.

Post-conviction life In exchange for the evidence he provided, McNamara was allowed to remain free, keeping around $2 million in assets. He transferred all of his homes to his then-girlfriend Diane Dangerfield, and continued to live in his Long Island mansion. He later opened an auto parts supply company. Lead prosecutor assistant U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch revealed that McNamara's personal life was similar pre- and post-conviction.