CEDAR RAPIDS MAN TO PRISON FOR $500,000 BANK FRAUD
Also Ordered to Pay $482,500 Restitution

United States Attorney Matt M. Dummermuth announced today that a man who lied to borrow $500,000 from a bank was sentenced today to 2 ½ years in federal prison.

CHRIS PIPKIN, 39, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 7, 2007, guilty plea to making false statements on a bank loan application.

At the plea hearing, PIPKIN admitted that, in January 2000, he applied for a $500,000 partnership line-of-credit from a bank in Cedar Rapids. In order to obtain the loan, PIPKIN submitted a certified personal financial statement that contained information PIPKIN knew was false. For example, PIPKIN falsely claimed his annual salary was $350,000. In truth, PIPKIN’s annual salary was far less than $350,000. After the bank approved the partnership loan, PIPKIN drew down the entire line-ofcredit. The loan was to be repaid by January 27, 2001. At least $482,500 was never repaid.

PIPKIN was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. PIPKIN was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and he was ordered to make $482,500 in restitution to the bank. He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

PIPKIN was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sean R. Berry and investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.