Former South Windsor Pita Bread Kingpin Indicted on Fraud Charges

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — A Vernon resident who portrayed himself as a pita bread manufacturing kingpin with a South Windsor-based business has been indicted on white collar charges, a leading prosecutor said.

Deirdre Daly, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced Thursday that a federal grand jury in New Haven has returned a 14-count indictment charging Mohsen Youssef, 26, formerly of Vernon, with fraud offenses relating to an alleged scheme to secure more than $3 million in funding for his purported pita manufacturing business.

Yousse was arrested in Canada on March 1 and has been detained since his arrest. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Richardson on Thursday, entered a not guilty plea and was ordered detained, Daly said.

As alleged in the indictment, beginning in approximately October 2011, Youssef defrauded various banks, a corporate leasing and vendor finance company, and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, in a scheme to secure funding for equipment purchases for his company, Amoun Pita and Distribution LLC and other companies he controlled.

According to its business plan, Amoun Pita was a bakery that manufactured pocket pita bread from a production facility in South Windsor, according to indictment.

As part of the alleged scheme, Youssef provided false information when applying for loans, lines of credit, lease financing and state grants, purportedly to finance the acquisition of new pita manufacturing equipment, other machinery and inventory related to his businesses, the indictment indicates.

The false information included documentation that shows inflated assets and income as well as fraudulently created invoices purporting to document equipment purchases that, in fact, never occurred, according to the indictment.

Youssef also created false marketing successes, Daly said.

It is alleged that the scheme led to more than $3 million in losses, she said.

Youssef has dual U.S and Egyptian citizenship and moved to Canada in 2014, Daly said.

Daly said the indictment charges Youssef with two counts of wire fraud, an offense that carries a maximum 20-year prison term on each count; 11 counts of bank fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years on each count and one count of mail fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.

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