A man who concealed assets from the bankruptcy court and then lied about his assets under oath before a bankruptcy judge was sentenced today to eighteen months in federal prison.

Jay Freese, from Montour, Iowa, received the prison term after a February 18, 2014 guilty plea to one count of concealing assets in a bankruptcy case.

At the guilty plea hearing, Freese admitted he filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Iowa. Freese did not disclose his ownership of a Bobcat skid loader or Kubota tractor. When questioned under oath before a federal bankruptcy judge, Freese lied about those assets, claiming he sold them to another person.

Freese was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Freese was sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment and fined $5,000. A special assessment of $100 was imposed. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

This case was investigated and prosecuted as part of the Bankruptcy Fraud Task Force in the Northern District of Iowa.

Freese was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney C.J. Williams and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of United States Bankruptcy Trustee.