A former vice president and loan officer for Community First Bank of the Heartland based in Mt. Vernon who committed bank fraud and multiple arsons was sentenced in federal court in Benton on Thursday to 12 years in prison.
53-year-old Richard Pigg previously pleaded guilty in April to six counts of bank fraud and three counts of arson. Pigg currently resides in Texas, but lived in Mt. Vernon at the time of the charged conduct from May 2011 to December 2016.
During his hearing, the sentencing judge described Pigg as a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ who destroyed people’s lives with his horrific fraud. Pigg relied on letters of support citing his good works, but the judge told Pigg that this was like a man who robbed a bank, gave some of the money to a homeless shelter, then burned the homeless shelter down, and wanted credit for the donation.
Prosecutors said more than $600,000 was taken from Community First Bank of the Heartland to purchase investment properties and to pay personal expenses. In an attempt to use insurance benefits to pay off bank loans, Pigg burned multiple properties including one in Centralia that partially burned in January 2016 and then destroyed in a second fire a month later.
US Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe said for more than half a decade Pigg abused his position of trust to defraud his bank, take advantage of his customers, and skim money off of inflated loans. She said for this pattern of fraud and fire that financially ruined his victims, put innocent lives at risk, and injured a first responder, Pigg is fully deserving of 12 years in federal prison.
As part of the scheme, Pigg assured his victims that he would secure the tenants, collect the rent, and maintain the properties. In addition, without the victims’ consent, Pigg at times increased the amount financed in the mortgage loan by thousands of dollars above the purchase price and redirected the excess loan proceeds to his own accounts and to pay his own debts.
Under Truth in Sentencing, Pigg must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence. After being released, he will serve three years of supervised release.
