Auto Shop Owner Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud Charges

The owner of a now defunct Missouri auto body shop has pleaded guilty in federal court to bank fraud charges.

By pleading guilty, Clint Edward Dukes, 35, of Mayview, Mo., admitted that he schemed to defraud First Community Bank, U.S. Bank and First Central Bank in Warrensburg, Mo., from March 2004 to July 2011, according to a press release on Wednesday from the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, David M. Ketchmark.

To obtain roughly $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, according to the news release. He filed false financial disclosure statements with these banks to conceal the fact that he used the loans to repay previous loans made from other banks.

Two of the holding companies for the banks, the $609 million-asset First Community Bancshares in Overland Park, Kan., and U.S. Bancorp (USB) in Minneapolis, received funds from Tarp. U.S. Bancorp repaid its almost $6.6 billion in funds in June 2009.

As of Sept. 30, First Community hadn’t repaid its $14.8 million in Tarp money and had missed dividend and interest payments totaling more than $2 million.

The three banks lost almost $2.1 million from Dukes's actions, the press release said. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Dukes must pay a money judgment in that amount to the government.

Dukes, who owned Dukes Auto Repair in Higginsville, Mo., from 2004 to 2011, faces up to 30 years in federal prison without parole plus a fine up to $1 million and an order of restitution.