September 6, 2017
From the Associated Press and the Oklahoman –
Federal prosecutors have charged the former president of a bank in northwest Oklahoma with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
The Oklahoman reports 53-year-old Stephen Ward is accused of misapplying tens of thousands of dollars in bank funds for his personal benefit. He allegedly wrote hot checks between 2006 and 2010, according to prosecutors. One hot check was for $187-thousand dollars and was written to the US Treasury.
Ward is the former president of the failed First State Bank in Camargo.
His defense attorney isn’t contesting the charge and plans to enter a guilty plea saying that Ward was “carrying overdrafts for certain customers, friends and family for long periods of time trying to help a lot of people out. The attorney added that banking was done a little differently than it is in…urban-type areas.
Two other bank employees have also been charged in the case.
At times, prosecutors allege, the amount of insufficiently funded checks in what was called, “the holds,” exceeded $3-million dollars.
Prosecutors say the bank opened in 1911 and closed in 2011.
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