Home Knoxville Press Releases 2010 Ducktown Dodge Owner Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison for Bank Fraud
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Ducktown Dodge Owner Sentenced to 27 Months in Prison for Bank Fraud

U.S. Attorney’s Office July 26, 2010
  • Eastern District of Tennessee (865) 545-4167

CHATTANOOGA, TN—Erik Brucker, 44, of Mineral Bluff, Georgia, was sentenced today in United States District Court in Chattanooga, to 27 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution to SunTrust Bank in the amount of $137,901. Counsel for Brucker had filed a motion for a new trial, but was denied by the Honorable Harry S. Mattice, Jr., United States District Judge.

The sentence was the result of a trial conviction by Assistant United States Attorneys John MacCoon and Terra Bay on August 12, 2009, to three counts of bank fraud.

The indictment and subsequent conviction at trial of Brucker was the result of a year long investigation conducted by the FBI and the United States Postal Inspection Service. The evidence produced at trial showed that Brucker, owner of Ducktown Dodge in Ducktown, Tennessee, recruited Barron Mays, a banker at SunTrust Bank, to facilitate the approval of car loans to Ducktown Dodge customers by SunTrust Bank, regardless of their credit worthiness, in exchange for payments and the free use of vehicles provided by Ducktown Dodge. After being recruited and paid by Brucker, Mays would ensure that car loans were made to Ducktown Dodge uncreditworthy customers based on income information falsified by Brucker at Ducktown Dodge and later provided to the bank. Mays, the cooperating banker, knew the information was fraudulent. As a result, the unwitting customers were forced to pay much greater monthly payments than they had originally agreed to or understood when they purchased the cars. Due to their inability to make the payments, several individuals lost their cars and at least one of the individual victims was forced into bankruptcy.

Mays was also prosecuted as part of the case and previously received a 24-month sentence.

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