Post by Tony Enriquez on Feb 21, 2016 16:06:42 GMT 4
Ex-CEO indicted on 10 counts of bank fraud
Mark Warne, an ex-bank CEO in Newton County, used $6 million in fraudulent loans to family members to fund an excessive lifestyle, a federal indictment filed Thursday alleges.
Warne faces 10 charges of bank fraud and four charges of identify theft stemming from his five years as president of Community State Bank in Brook, a town northwest of Lafayette near the Illinois border.
From 2010 to 2015, Warne forged the signatures of four customers — three of whom were relatives — to prepare loan applications, the proceeds of which he used "to support his lifestyle," U.S. attorney David Capp writes in an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Hammond.
Warne used the money to, among other things, buy show cattle and vehicles, make property improvements and repay earlier fake loans, the indictment alleges.
To conceal the fake loans to family members — which would have drawn scrutiny from the bank's board of directors — Warne prepared two separate meeting minutes: one for the board and another he submitted to the FDIC, the indictment alleges.
Eventually, the bank caught on to his alleged scheme and filed a $3 million lawsuit Oct. 26 in a Newton County court, which is still pending. The lawsuit claims that Warne and his wife, Melissa, transferred the money to accounts in which both were named as account holders.
Attorneys representing Mark and Melissa Warne were not immediately available for comment Friday.