EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (WAND)- A 75-year-old former Mattoon man has been sentenced to 78 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal bank fraud charges.
Alfred Cross, lately of Kinmundy, pleaded guilty to schemes in which he opened accounts at Illinois banks and deposited large checks on out-of-state accounts with insufficient funds. Before the checks were returned for having insufficient funds, Cross withdrew almost all the funds he had deposited, according to a federal complaint.
The banks targeted included Midland States Bank and Washington Savings Bank, both in Effingham.
Cross gave some of the funds to relatives and used the rest to pay personal expenses, investigators said. He conducted the scheme from April 2011 through March 2015, according to federal prosecutors.
At sentencing, Cross asked the court to impose a lenient sentence because of his advanced age and medical conditions. The judge noted Cross had 16 prior convictions, many for similar conduct, and said the court was “not confident he can be deterred” from future criminal conduct.
In addition to his prison sentence, the court also ordered Cross to serve five years of supervised release and pay restitution of $111,698 to two of the banks he defrauded.
