Three Missouri Businessmen Charged with Bank Fraud

By Sarah Todd January 13, 2014, 1:17 p.m. EST 1 Min Read

Community banking

Failure of Tarp Banks Remains Industry Concern

Experts believe more Tarp participants will fail as the economy plods along, and that investors should keep this in mind when bidding on auctions of the Treasury's Tarp holdings.

By Robert Barba

October 25
Consumer banking

Regulators Shutter Three Banks; 46 Failures in 2012

Three banks failed Friday – including two in Florida – and will cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. an estimated $86 million. Regulators seized the $200 million-asset Excel Bank in Sedalia, Mo.; the $159 million-asset GulfSouth Private Bank in Destin, Fla.; and the $67 million-asset First East Side Savings Bank in Tamarac, Fla.

By Joe Adler

October 19

Three Missouri businessmen accused of defrauding Excel Bank, which later failed, were arraigned in federal court in St. Louis on Friday.

William Glasgow, James Crews and Michael Hilbert each face two felony counts of bank fraud, according to a press release Monday from the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Sigtarp is involved in the case because Excel, which was based in Sedalia, Mo., received $4 million from the Treasury Department in May 2009. Regulators closed the bank in October 2012; it had assets of about $200 million.

Glasgow, 72, owned the real estate business Glasgow Realty. He is accused of submitting false information about his rental properties to Excel in order to take out nearly $2 million in loans in 2009, according to the indictment. Glasgow defaulted on both loans.

A separate indictment charges real estate business owners Crews, 56, and Hilbert, 62, with submitting fraudulent information to Excel in order to "draw requests for hundreds of thousands of dollars in escrow funds set aside for improvements to [rental] properties" in 2010, according to the release. Their businesses operated under several names, including Crews Corp., Hillcrew Properties, Merz Properties, Eagle Group and Marathon RE.

"When Excel Bank failed, taxpayers lost their entire $4 million Tarp investment in the bank and more than $900,000 in past-due dividends," Christy Romero, the Tarp special IG, said in the release. "Defrauding a Tarp bank is defrauding the federal taxpayers who funded the Tarp bailout. "

Each count of bank fraud carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.

Sarah Todd

Deputy Editor, BankThink