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Latest Legal News from the Criminal Courts in Houston, Texas
MAY 23, 2007
RANCHER SCHEDULED TO GO ON TRIAL FOR BANK FRAUD
Lubbock, Tx. — A San Angelo, Texas, rancher, Andy Luna, charged with bank fraud, is scheduled to go on trial in U.S. District Court in Lubbock on July 2, 2007, announced US. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Last month a federal grand jury in Lubbock returned an indictment charging Luna with one count of bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344. Luna, 38, has entered a plea of not guilty to the charge, and is currently on bond.
According to the indictment, from May 2004 to February 2006, Luna ran a scheme to defraud the San Angelo Banking Center, San Angelo, Texas, a branch of First National Bank of Sonora.
Luna borrowed money from the San Angelo Banking Center representing that the proceeds of the loans were going to be used to purchase livestock. He represented that the collateral for the loans would be existing livestock and the livestock he purchased with the loan proceeds.
However, after buying the livestock with the loan proceeds, Luna sold the livestock, and used the proceeds for his own benefit, instead of repaying the San Angelo Banking Center. After the San Angelo Banking Center raised concerns about Luna’s collateral, Luna made more false representations and promises to them, advising that he had not sold any cattle that he had pledged to the bank but had only sold cattle he owned prior to the loans. He also provided a false inventory of his cattle and represented that he had used the money to buy calves that had been placed in a feedlot where Luna was victimized when someone else sold the calves and absconded with the sales proceeds.
An indictment is an accusation by a federal grand jury and a defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty. If convicted, however, the maximum statutory penalty for bank fraud is 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine. Restitution could be ordered.
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