Community bank CFO convicted of trying to defraud two lenders

• Key Insight: Former Bank of the Valley CFO Aaron Luneke has been found guilty of bank fraud and attempted bank fraud.
• Supporting Data: Luneke applied for a total of $7.8 million in loans based on inflated contractor invoices, jurors found.
• Expert Quote: "Mr. Luneke exploited his position of power to conceal a pattern of deception that defrauded his employer," said Eugene Kowel, special agent in charge of the FBI's Omaha Field Office.

The chief financial officer of a community bank in Nebraska has been found guilty of swindling two lenders, including his own employer, in a scheme involving a car wash.

Aaron T. Luneke, the former CFO of Bank of the Valley in Nebraska, was convicted earlier this month of both bank fraud and attempted bank fraud. The attempted fraud was against Stearns Bank, a community bank in St. Cloud, Minnesota, while the successfully completed fraud was against Bank of the Valley itself.

"Mr. Luneke exploited his position of power to conceal a pattern of deception that defrauded his employer," Eugene Kowel, special agent in charge of the FBI's Omaha Field Office, said in a statement. 

A federal jury found that Luneke, 44, sought millions of dollars in loans from the two banks, purportedly for the construction of a new car wash business in Columbus, Nebraska, called Legacy Express Wash. 

To justify those loans, prosecutors say, Luneke gave the banks fraudulent and inflated invoices from contractors. In Stearns' case, Luneke applied for a $3.5 million refinancing loan. At Bank of the Valley, he applied for and obtained two loans totaling $4.3 million.

According to prosecutors, this was part of a broader campaign of deceit. Throughout the spring of 2021, the jury found, Luneke repeatedly exaggerated contractor and electrician bills, omitted his own debts from loan applications and used a series of shell companies to cover his tracks.

The case against Luneke included testimony from Bank of the Valley's president, its former chief credit officer and compliance personnel, according to prosecutors.

The former CFO's sentencing is scheduled for June 10. He could face up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million per count.

The FBI, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors all collaborated on the investigation. 

"Aaron Luneke abused his position as a bank executive to orchestrate a fraud scheme for his own personal gain and has now been brought to justice for his actions," Michael Horowitz, inspector general for the Fed's Board of Governors, said in a statement. "We are proud to have worked alongside our federal law enforcement partners to achieve this result."

When bank executives defraud their own employers, the consequences can be dire.

In December 2025, Danny Seibel, the former CEO of the defunct First National Bank of Lindsay in Oklahoma, was charged with making loans to friends and neighbors that were never repaid. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed the bank in October 2024, saying it had found "false and deceptive bank records," which drained its capital reserves.

In February 2023, Ashton Ryan Jr., the ex-CEO of the failed First NBC Bank in New Orleans, was convicted of dozens of fraud and conspiracy charges. As in Seibel's case, he was accused of making generous loans that could not be paid back. The bank's failure in 2017 was the costliest in seven years.

Bank of the Valley, which has seven offices and $543 million of assets, has fared better. In 2025, the bank reported net income of $3.8 million, down from $5.2 million four years earlier.

Lawyers for Luneke and for Bank of the Valley did not respond to American Banker's requests for comment.