Friday, January 11, 2008

Bowman expected to plead guilty today


Rep. John Bowman, D-St. Louis, the final defendant in a bank and credit card fraud scheme, is scheduled to change his plea, which is currently not guilty, today in U. S. District Court in St. Louis.
According to court records, the session is set for 10:30 a.m. before Judge Henry Edward Autrey. Bowman's trial was scheduled to begin Monday, Feb. 4.
The other defendants in the case have either pleaded guilty, or in the case of the ringleader of the scheme in which Bowman was allegedly involved, former Bank of America Vice President Robert Conner, been found guilty by a federal jury in December.
Conner is free on $65,000 bond while awaiting his sentencing, which is scheduled for Feb. 20.
Conner and Bowman were indicted in January 2007 by a federal grand jury, which said Bowman and his co-defendants agreed to a scheme in which Conner took a bank lending program which provided money to small businesses by offering a $25,000 credit limit, then arranged with the other defendants to apply for the loans, often with fictitious companies, then give Conner kickbacks ranging from $2,500 to $5,000 on each loan.
According to the indictment, Conner approved $1,213,970 in fraudulent loans.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

where's all the calls for Bowman's head like there were for Nathan Cooper's?

I mean Bowman is just as much of a hypocrit as Cooper voting for immigration restriction while defrauding the government on the backside.

Bowman sat on the banking committee yet defrauded a bank

Anonymous said...

Has he resigned his House seat? At least with the previously passed constitutional amendment he will lose any retirement from the State with his conviction.