Posted on Monday, October 17th, 2016 at 8:28 am
Seventy-three-year-old Champaign, Illinois landlord and architect Gene Hardwick is scheduled to appear at the United States District Court in Urbana on Friday, October 14. If found guilty, Hardwick will have to spend 24 months in federal prison for defrauding Longview State Bank after he is sentenced by U.S. Judge Colin Bruce.
According to court documents, Hardwick made a loan of $3.9 million from Longview Bank in 2007 to allegedly erect a 64-unit apartment building at 611 E. Park Street, C. However, when a bank examiner from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. inspected the address to assess Longview’s loan portfolio, the examiner “discovered an empty parking lot.”
The bank had already paid out around $2.4 million when the fraud was discovered. A major dispute between the prosecution and the defense was the amount of loss, with the prosecution saying that it was “at most, $391,349” and the defense saying its “unauthorized personal expenses was $43,417.”
If you have been charged with a criminal offense in Champaign or another area in Illinois, get in touch with our criminal defense attorneys at the Bruno Law Offices by calling our offices today at (217) 328-6000.