The former vice president of Appalachian Community Bank in Ellijay, Ga., has been sentenced to three years and six months in federal prison for defrauding the bank and forcing it into receivership in 2010.
William R. “Rusty” Beamon Jr., 54, is a resident of Atlanta, and was convicted by a jury of five counts of bank fraud on Dec. 19, 2014, after a five-day trial, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
“Former banker Beamon, of TARP applicant Appalachian Community Bank, was sentenced … for raiding the bank’s inventory of foreclosed real estate when the bank was seeking a TARP bailout,” said Christy Romero, special inspector general for the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program. “Beamon fraudulently rented out bank-owned properties and collected rent payments for his own use, and he caused the bank to sell properties to his wife and to a shell company he controlled at severely discounted prices — prices well below what others were willing to pay.”
Beamon claimed these transactions were conducted to save the bank, but instead his actions placed the bank in jeopardy, and profited himself, Romero said.
After his prison term Beamon will serve five years on supervised release. He must pay a $500 special assessment and forfeit all real properties involved in the offense.