A United States District Court Judge sentenced 66-year-old Thomas Gretter, who is formerly from Washington, to 13 months in federal prison. Gretter was found guilty of two counts of making a false statement to a financial institution. He was sentenced January 26th, and after his 13 month sentence is served, he will be required to pay $200 to the Crime Victims’ Fund, and pay nearly $1.2 million in restitution to Hill Bank & Trust. Gretter pleaded guilty to charges stemming from incidents in 2013 and 2014, where he obtained loans from Hills Bank.

As security for each of the loans, he pledged multiple items of collateral that he knew included false statements, and were unavailable to Hills Bank as security. Additionally, he forged the signatures of multiple people on items of pledged collateral and provided those documents to Hills Bank in order to influence them in making the loans. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.