The owner of a defunct Higginsville, Mo., body shop pleaded guilty in federal court to bank fraud charges.
Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri David M. Ketchmark says the scheme involved three banks.
Ketchmark says two of those banks received funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
“TARP was designed to help financial institutions recover from the economic downturn,” Ketchmark said, “not to provide a cash cow that dishonest business owners could plunder. We will hold those accountable who steal from public funds.”
Clint Edward Dukes, 35, of Mayview, Mo., waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple to a federal information that charges him with bank fraud. Dukes was the owner of Dukes Auto Repair in Higginsville from 2004 to 2011.
By pleading guilty Dukes admitted that he engaged in a scheme to defraud First Community Bank, US Bank and First Central Bank from March 2004 to July 2011. In order to obtain approximately $2.8 million in loans from these banks, Dukes falsely claimed to have contracts with the state of Missouri for car repair work and submitted fraudulent invoices to the banks. Dukes filed false financial disclosure statements with these banks to conceal the fact that he used loans from each bank to extinguish previous loans made from the other banks.
Clint Dukes’ crime resulted in losses of more than $2 million for three banks. Christy Romero, Special Inspector General for TARP, says two of the banks were TARP banks, and one is delinquent on its TARP dividends in that same amount.
“Dukes used falsified invoices for nonexistent car repair work through his business to secure loans from the banks totaling nearly $3 million, more than two-thirds of which was never repaid,” Romero said. “All fraud involving TARP is fraud that exploits taxpayer dollars, and SIGTARP, along with our law enforcement partners, will bring to justice those responsible for TARP-related crime.”
Under federal statutes, Dukes is subject to a sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $1 million and an order of restitution. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.