On March 9, 2016, Bill Bray, St. Joseph, was sentenced on a guilty plea to a class B felony for bank fraud in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri. As a term of this plea agreement, a judgment, including order of forfeiture, was recorded in Daviess County on April 20, 2016.
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According to the plea agreement filed Oct. 20, 2015, Bray owed an approximate total of $270,934 to Nodaway Valley Bank through three loans on or about Jan. 1, 2015. The loans were represented by Bray to be collateralized by 500-550 head of cattle.
In July 2014 and again on Feb. 3, 2015, a Nodaway Valley Bank officer visited Bray’s property to count Bray’s cattle. Bray showed the officer cattle belonging to another person, falsely representing to the officer that Bray owned the cattle. Because of discrepancies in Bray’s statements after the Feb. 3, 2015 meeting, Nodaway Valley Bank declined to renew Bray’s loans and informed him the loans were being called. At that point, Bray admitted that the cattle were gone and that he never had the 500+ cattle as he had represented.
Mr. Bray was a livestock broker working through his company, Missouri B & K Live Stock Company. According to the Missouri Secretary of State, this business entity, with a registered office at 105 Angler Point, Gallatin, was administratively dissolved in Aug. 2010.
Mr. Bray’s charges, plea agreement and bond hearing were all held Oct. 20, 2015, with Bray released on a personal recognizance bond. On March 9, 2016, Bray was sentenced to time served, restitution in the amount of $141,760.24 and five years of supervised release. A search of federal inmate records does not indicate any physical incarceration time was served. The government did not seek forfeiture of Bray’s real estate located in St. Joseph.
Bray is a Lake Viking lot owner and has been active in real estate in this area for many years.