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To: long-gone who wrote (80040)	12/18/2001 12:49:17 AM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116760

Monday December 17, 6:54 pm Eastern Time W.Va. Man Sentenced for Bank Failure West Virginia Bank Official Sentenced to More Than 12 Years for Bank Failure By MARTHA BRYSON HODEL Associated Press Writer BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (AP) -- A former bank official was sentenced Monday to more than 12 years in prison and ordered to pay $515 million in restitution for his role in one of the nation's largest bank failures. Michael Graham, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to embezzlement and money laundering charges, was given the maximum sentence. ``I felt like anything less would not be sufficient,'' U.S. District Judge David Faber said. ``It's difficult to measure the harm and suffering caused by what has happened here. Many people lost their life savings.'' Four other former bank employees were also sentenced on charges stemming from a federal investigation into the failure of The First National Bank of Keystone, the only bank in the West Virginia coal town. The bank was declared insolvent on Sept. 1, 1999, after federal authorities concluded that up to $515 million of the bank's reported $1.1 billion in assets had vanished. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has estimated its total loss at between $750 million and $850 million, making the failure the largest since the FDIC was established after the Depression. Graham was ordered to make $300 monthly payments toward restitution. ``I want to apologize to the stockholders and the community of Keystone,'' Graham said to the judge. ``My actions caused the failure of the bank. There is nothing I can do except help the FDIC recover as much money as possible. Hopefully, there will be restitution.'' Graham, the former executive vice president of bank subsidiary Keystone Mortgage Co., is already serving a federal sentence after being convicted of interfering with the investigation. Barbara Nunn, who was Graham's assistant, had pleaded guilty to two counts of income tax evasion. She was sentenced to five years of probation and fined $4,000. Melissa Quizenbeury, a bank vice president who pleaded guilty to insider trading, was fined $5,000 and ordered to pay $440,000 in restitution. The judge recommended she spend eight months in a halfway house near her home. Former bank vice presidents Lora McKinney and Lorene Ellen Turpin, who pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the obstruction of federal bank examiners, both were sentenced to three years' probation. Some of the defendants helped prosecutors win convictions against former bank executive vice president Terry Lee Church, and the former chairwoman, Billie Jean Cherry. The two women were convicted Oct. 12 of embezzlement, mail fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors said they had looted more than $4 million from the estate of the late J. Knox McConnell, the longtime bank president, after he died in October 1997. Their sentencing is scheduled for January. biz.yahoo.com