Former President, Chief Executive Officer, Acting Chairman and Vice Chairman of FirstCity Bank Mark A. Conner was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, as reported in the Canton-Sixes Patch. He had been indicted in March, along with FirstCity Vice President Clayton A. Coe. Conner and Coe were alleged to have deceived FirstCity’s Loan Committee into approving multiple multimillion dollar commercial loans for borrowers to purchase properties which, unknown to the Committee, were owned by Conner and Coe. The scheme involved 10 other banks in addition to FirstCity. The defendants realized more than $5 million from the scheme.
Conner was also ordered to pay $19.5 million in restitution, and agreed to forfeit $7 million worth of cash and assets, including properties in Georgia and Virginia. Conner was arrested in March returning from a trip to the Turks and Caicos Islands. First City, based in Stockbridge, Georgia, was shut down in March of 2009. Coe will be sentenced in September.