Former Officers and Employees of Indiana Loan Packager and Servicer Charged in Alleged $10 Million S

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-officers-and-employees-indiana-loan-packager-and-servicer-charged-alleged-10-million

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 22, 2019

Former Officers and Employees of Indiana Loan Packager and Servicer Charged in Alleged $10 Million Scheme to Defraud the Small Business Administration

Five former officers and employees of an Indiana loan packaging and servicing company were charged for their alleged roles in a 13-year-long conspiracy to defraud the Small Business Administration (SBA) in connection with its programs to guarantee loans made to small businesses.
(snip)

Kerri Agee, aka Kerri Agee-Smith, 43, of Noblesville, Indiana, former president, chief executive officer and founder of Banc-Serv Partners LLP (Banc-Serv); Kelly Isley, 38, of Westfield, Indiana, Banc-Serv’s former chief operating officer; Matthew Smith, 50, of Westfield, Indiana, Banc-Serv’s co-founder; Chad Griffin, 46, of Carmel, Indiana, Banc-Serv’s former chief marketing officer; and Nicole Smith, aka Nicole Smith-Kelso, 42, of Indianapolis, Indiana, a former Banc-Serv employee, were charged in an indictment unsealed today with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and one count of conspiracy to make false statements in loan-guarantee applications and purchase requests. Additionally, Agee was charged with four counts of wire fraud and seven counts of making false statements in loan-guarantee applications and purchase requests; Isley was charged with three counts of wire fraud and four counts of making false statements in loan-guarantee applications and purchase requests; Griffin was charged with one count of making false statements in loan-guarantee applications and purchase requests; and Nicole Smith was charged with three counts of wire fraud and four counts of making false statements in loan-guarantee applications and purchase requests.

According to the indictment, from approximately 2004 until October 2017, the defendants helped originate SBA loans on behalf of various financial institutions. On multiple occasions, the defendants fraudulently obtained guarantees for loans that the SBA deemed ineligible, the indictment alleges. The indictment also alleges that the defendants hid signs of ineligibility from the SBA by knowingly misrepresenting the use of SBA loan proceeds and unlawfully diverting previously denied loan applications into expedited approval channels. Matthew Smith left Banc-Serv in or around the end of 2005, and he founded and became the managing director of a non-bank lending company. According to the indictment, Smith knowingly caused false and fraudulent loan applications that were prepared by Banc-Serv employees and guarantee requests to be transmitted to the SBA.

The indictment further alleges that when a fraudulently guaranteed loan defaulted, the defendants caused other Banc-Serv employees to transmit requests to the SBA to purchase the defaulted loans from investors and lending institutions, thereby shifting losses on the ineligible loans to the SBA.
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[marble falls]

1. Why'd it take thirteen years to nail them down?