The owners of the Plainville Livestock Association in Rooks County have been indicted in federal court in connection to a multi-million dollar check kiting scheme.
A Topeka grand jury returned an indictment this week against 47-year-old Tyler Gillum and his wife 50-year-old Camden, charging them with 31 counts of bank fraud, one count of making a false statement to the Small Business Administration in an application for a $1.5 million loan, and one count of making a false statement to Almena State Bank in an application for a $500,000 line of credit.
The indictment accuses the couple of defrauding Almena State Bank in Almena, Landmark Bank in Manhattan, Kansas, Colorado East Bank and Trust in Lamar, Colorado, Astra Bank in Scandia, TBK Bank in Dallas, Guaranty State Bank in Beloit and The Bank in Oberlin. In the indictment, it’s stated that investigators found unfunded checks and wire transfers totaling more than $2 billion sent by Tyler Gillum, including 409 wire transfers and 7,584 checks.
The crime of check kiting involves taking advantage of the time it takes for a check to be presented to a financial institution to be deposited, to the time it takes the financial institution to receive the funds. The non-existent funds inflate the account, allowing the person to write checks on the account that otherwise would bounce.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Office of Inspector General, the FBI, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Officer of Inspector General, the Federal Housing Finance Agency – Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Small Business Administration – Office of Inspector General.
