A former Bergen County mortgage broker and ex-director and chief executive officer of Edgewater-based Mariner’s Bank was freed on $200,000 bail Wednesday after being charged by federal authorities with defrauding Washington Mutual Bank to obtain a $1.5 million loan for a client.
James Cockinos, 58, who faces as much as 30 years in prison and a fine of as much as $1 million if convicted, is accused of conspiring with an Englewood Cliffs auto dealer in spring 2007 to acquire the loan to buy a home for $1.9 million in the dealer’s wife’s name through fraudulent means.