BENTON, Ill. — A former vice president of a local bank was sentenced Thursday in Federal court in Benton to 12 years in prison after he’d earlier pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bank fraud and arson.
Richard “Rick” B. Pigg admitted in April to a scheme using his position to fraudulently obtain more than a half-million from Community First Bank of the Heartland.
Of the 11 counts originally filed against him, Pigg pleaded guilty to nine. While Vice-President and Loan Officer at Community First Bank he fraudulently obtained more than $600,000 from the bank to purchase investment properties and pay personal expenses, such as his personal credit card, and his ex-wife’s.
As part of his scheme, Pigg asked multiple bank customers to purchase rental properties in their names but on his behalf, through mortgage loans financed at Community First, and that he would secure tenants, collect the rent, and maintain the properties for them.
Pigg ultimately admitted to securing and approving six such loans and then increasing the loan amounts by thousands of dollars above the purchase prices of the rental properties without the loan customers’ knowledge. He then deposited the subsequent cashier’s checks for those loans into his personal bank account at People’s National Bank which was held with his mother.
He also admitted to setting fire to one of those properties in January and February 2016. According to court records, Counts Seven and Eight accused Pigg of twice setting fire to a rental home on Joliff Bridge Road in Centralia, but the first attempt didn’t sufficiently damage the property, but a second fire set the following month was more destructive. Insurance payments then allowed Pigg to pay off the mortgage loan at Community First.
After the first arson at the rental property in Centralia, Pigg set fire to a four-unit apartment complex in West Frankfort that was part of his scheme. That property was destroyed, and Pigg could pay off that mortgage with insurance funds.
The 53-year-old Pigg was facing more than 30 years in federal prison. A December 14 hearing has been scheduled for matters such as restitution in the case. Under Truth in Sentencing, Pigg must serve at least 85% of his sentence. Following imprisonment, he will serve three years of supervised release.
During his hearing, the sentencing judge described Pigg as a “Jekyll and Hyde” who destroyed people’s lives with his horrific fraud. Pigg had relied on letters of support citing his good works, but the judge told Pigg that this was like a man who robs a bank, gives some of money to a homeless shelter, then burns the homeless shelter down and wants credit for donating to the homeless shelter.