Columbia native and contractor Gregg Crawford accepted a plea deal last Monday in federal court in connection with a charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. 

Crawford, 65, owner of several properties and businesses in Columbia – most notably the Main Street Abbey complex on South Main Street – will be sentenced in United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois on Oct. 14.

At that time, Crawford will be sentenced for his involvement in a number of fraudulent bank loans created on his behalf using another individual’s name and information.

Details of the plea agreement were not disclosed, but prosecutors agreed to “recommend a sentence at the low end of the sentencing guideline range” in exchange for the guilty plea.

Statutory penalties for the conspiracy charge include no more than 30 years’ imprisonment, a $1 million fine and five years of mandatory supervised release.

Court documents obtained Tuesday by the Republic-Times indicate Crawford, along with his brother-in-law Francis “Frank” Eversman, worked together to establish 30 such “nominee loans” over the course of 5.5 years using “straw purchasers.”

Eversman, 74, of Collinsville, was also charged in the conspiracy and likewise entered a guilty plea on June 23.

Nominee loans are established using one identity while the funds are intended for use by a separate party.

The filing explains Crawford “recruited financially disadvantaged individuals (the straw purchasers) by convincing them that their straw purchases would improve their credit ratings.”   

The straw purchasers were also paid cash in exchange for having their names listed as the properties’ owners.

Using Eversman’s position as senior loan officer at Tempo Bank in Trenton (which has since been acquired by Scott Credit Union), the loans submitted on behalf of Crawford were “steered” through the bank’s approval process.

Property appraisals associated with the fraudulent loans were inflated “based upon promises of future improvements and renovations to the properties.”

While Crawford made payments on the loans, and paid the insurance premiums and property taxes of the straw purchases, “it was a part of the scheme that Crawford used some of the loan proceeds for purposes other than the promised improvements,” court information states.

Crawford also “repurchased subject properties back from straw purchasers for no payment, but assumed the loans.” 

An investigation into “suspicious loans” authorized by Eversman was launched by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 2020. The investigation revealed 15 nominee loans with a total value of $3,588,800 were submitted by Eversman from Oct. 17, 2013, to Aug. 4, 2016.

The investigation also found Eversman intentionally “concealed the existence of the nominee loans” for about three years prior to the OCC investigation.

While Eversman did not admit to nor deny the findings, he did consent in February 2022 to pay a $100,000 fine and submit to terms prohibiting him from working for any financial institution.

A subsequent conspiracy investigation found an additional 15 nominee loans submitted by Eversman before and after the period described in the loan investigation, with Crawford as the benefactor of all 30 such loans.

The filing also states Crawford instructed an unnamed party to “falsely tell investigators that the straw purchaser had, at the time of purchase, intended to live in the subject property,” with Crawford following up to determine if the individual had “lied to investigators as instructed.”

The amount of the 15 additional loans was not disclosed in the documents received by the Republic-Times, but it is stated that “all loans were repaid in full” once fraud was discovered.  

Also not disclosed are the “purposes other than the promised improvements” which were financed using  nominee loans.

Crawford committed the conspiracy as an officer of Main Street Developers LLC and Mid America Contracting Inc., both of which are headquartered in Columbia.

Crawford used the Main Street Developers company name to apply for a zoning map amending the classification of a Main Street Abbey property from R-6 one-family dwelling to a C-2 general business district.

Columbia aldermen unanimously approved the re-zoning during a Feb. 6, 2017, meeting.    

Also during that meeting, Main Street Redevelopers LLC, also owned by Crawford, was the company used to secure unanimous approval of an ordinance to again change the zoning of two Main Street Abbey parcels from the C-2  general business designation to a C-2 MXD mixed use development zone.

Later in that same meeting, Main Street Redevelopers LLC obtained final approval for the Main Street Abbey Main Re-Development Plat which has since seen the property expand to include an event center, hotel, restaurant and cafe, in addition to future businesses on part of the Main Street Abbey property now known as Franklin Yard.

The City of Columbia established the Main Street Abbey Tax Increment Financing and Business District in 2016. The district boundaries only include Crawford-owned Main Street Abbey properties in the 300 block of South Main Street, the 300 block of South Metter Avenue and 100 block of East Madison Street.

Crawford did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

“The integrity of our banking system relies on the integrity of loan officers and applicants,” said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft said in a press release. “We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those who violate their fiduciary duties and those who obtain loans through fraud are brought to justice.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Eversman and Crawford admitted in district court that Crawford recruited straw purchasers to act as nominal loan applicants on what were often highly overvalued properties. Eversman steered these loans through the approval process, the attorney’s office said. Crawford then used the loan proceeds for other purposes.

“Every American citizen deserves to walk into their bank and trust the people behind the counter. In southern Illinois, these people are usually our neighbors and friends, people that we trust with our money and well-being. The defendants in this case violated that trust through schemes aimed to self-serve and increase wealth,” said FBI Springfield Assistant Special Agent in Charge Karen Marinos. “FBI Springfield and our partners with the Office of Inspector General – Treasury and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will always look out for the wellbeing of the citizens of Illinois and ensure their money is being put in the hands of people they can truly trust.”

The investigation was conducted by the FBI Springfield Field Office, the Office of Inspector General – Treasury Department, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Burke is prosecuting the case.