A former bank officer with Southern Bancorp Bank must serve two years in federal prison and repay $1.46 million to his former employer, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson sentenced Michael Erickson, after he pleaded guilty in October to one count of embezzlement by a bank officer.
The 42-year-old Ridgeland, Miss., resident was formerly Clarksdale-area president of Southern Bancorp Bank, which is based in Arkadelphia.
Erickson waived indictment and agreed to plead guilty to a charge that said he took $25,000 from an $85,000 loan. However, northern Mississippi U.S. Attorney Chad Lamar says Erickson was generating other fraudulent loans to give himself and others cash, according to The Associated Press.
Erickson must also serve three years of supervised release.
"This has been a long time coming," Nathan Pittman, a spokesman for Southern Bancorp, said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The fraudulent loans were discovered internally by Southern Bancorp in 2015, Pittman said.
Erickson was the main lender for Southern Bancorp in the Clarksdale, Miss., area, Pittman said.
Business on 02/16/2019