Cross pleads guilty to bank fraud in federal court

Alfred L. Cross, 75, of Kinmundy, originally from Mattoon, pleaded guilty last Friday to five counts of bank fraud, according to Donald S. Boyce, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.
The indictment charged Cross with defrauding seven southern Illinois banks out of more than $500,000.
Each of the bank fraud counts carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. The court can also order Cross to pay restitution to the victim banks.
He will be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. on May 9, at 9:30 a.m., at the Federal Courthouse in East St. Louis.
In pleading guilty on Friday, Cross admitted that he opened checking accounts at the following banks: Bradford National Bank in Greenville; Community First Bank of the Heartland in Mt. Vernon; Farmers and Merchants National Bank in Nashville, Ill.; First Southern Bank in Carbondale; Midland States Bank in Effingham; State Bank of Whittington, in Benton; and Washington Savings Bank in Effingham.
After these accounts had been open for a short period of time, Cross deposited into each of the accounts very large checks, ranging from $18,875 to $148,000.
These checks were drawn on out-of-state bank accounts in the names of businesses that Cross controlled.
Cross admitted that at the time he deposited these checks, he knew there were insufficient funds in the out-of-state accounts to cover the checks.
Cross further admitted that before the checks could be returned as non-sufficient funds, he withdrew almost all of the funds he had deposited.
Cross reportedly gave some of these funds to his relatives and used the remainder to pay for personal expenses.
Cross conducted this fraud scheme from April 14, 2011-March 25, 2015.
The investigation was conducted by agents from the Springfield Division, Fairview Heights Resident Agency, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott A. Verseman.