Tracy Brown

The former head of BB&T's commercial operations has agreed to plead guilty to a federal bank fraud charge and will face sentencing on June 4.

Tracy Brown agreed with prosecutors that he bilked the bank out of $475,000 in fraudulent loans he placed in clients' names and then withdrew for personal use, according to court documents.

According to records, Brown used at least three BB&T customer names to make loans in the amounts ranging from $45,000 to $230,000 between January 2010 and September 2012.

In one instance he called a customer listed as "D.M." in court documents to tell the man that a loan had been made by mistake in his name and that he would receive documents to adjust the error.

But after multiple mailings and faxes to resolve the problem the customer noticed that a signature on two loans of $50,000 and $45,000 each did not match his autograph.

Brown faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

For complete details, see tomorrow's Chattanooga Times Free Press.