Former BB&T bank officer to plead guilty to fraud

photo Tracy Brown

The former head of BB&T's commercial operations has agreed to plead guilty to federal bank fraud and will face sentencing June 4.

Tracy Brown agreed with prosecutors that he bilked the bank out of $475,000 in fraudulent loans. He put the loans in clients' names and then withdrew the money for personal use in his and his wife's accounts, according to court documents.

BB&T spokesman Brian Davis said in an emailed statement: "This is a very unfortunate situation. However, no client accounts or funds were compromised as a part of this incident and the employee involved is no longer employed with BB&T."

Because the incident is still a pending legal matter, Davis declined to comment further.

According to records, Brown used at least three BB&T customers' names to make loans in amounts ranging from $45,000 to $230,000 between January 2010 and September 2012.

In one instance he called a customer listed as "D.M." in court documents to tell the man that a loan had been made by mistake in his name and that he would receive documents to adjust the error.

But after multiple mailings and faxes to resolve the problem, the customer noticed that a signature on two loans of $50,000 and $45,000 each did not match his autograph.

Brown faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Contact staff writer Todd South at 423-757-6347 or tsouth@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsouthCTFP.

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