Bois D’Arc man convicted for bank fraud on $1.6M home

A Springfield jury convicted a Bois D’Arc man who worked as a residential property developer of a bank fraud scheme that involved the construction of his $1.6 million home.

Michael Ussery, 58, was found guilty late last week of 12 counts of bank fraud charged in a December 2011 indictment. Under federal statutes, he could receive a sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison without parole for each count, as well as a fine and order of restitution. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled following the U.S. Probation Office’s presentence investigation, according to a news release from the office of Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

The jury deliberated for over four hours before delivering the verdict Oct. 30. The trial began Oct. 26, according to the release sent this week.

In 2007, Ussery owned and operated two businesses, U.S.S. Properties Inc. and Villa Properties LLC, which purchased real estate for residential development. At the time, Ussery was building his home in Bois D’Arc. He took out a $1.6 million construction loan from Mid-Missouri Bank to pay off $1.15 million owed to a previous bank that financed the construction up to that point. With the remaining $450,000, Ussery was supposed to pay for the completion of the home. He also agreed to submit invoices and lien waivers from contractors to Mid-Missouri Bank, which would then disperse the amounts owed to his bank account, according to the release.

However, the money was not used for its intended purpose.

From May 29 to June 25, 2007, a dozen invoices and lien waivers totaling $315,417 were submitted to Mid-Missouri Bank, purportedly from contractors. It was later found the invoices and waivers were fraudulent, either created by or caused to be submitted by Ussery, according to the release.

When bank auditors visited the construction site in June and July 2007, the only new work they found was the hanging of drywall. The over $300,000 deposited into Ussery’s bank account was instead used for business by U.S.S. Properties and Villa Properties.

Ussery eventually stopped construction on the home and filed for personal bankruptcy in 2011. After calling the note on the property, Mid-Missouri Bank took a $782,349 loss when it sold the partially finished residence, according to the release.

Separately, Ussery allegedly committed similar fraudulent conduct against a Greene County couple who hired him to build their home. Ussery allegedly filed false lien waivers to Great Southern Bank to draw on the a construction loan for the home. While the evidence was introduced at trial, it was not part of the indictment.

In another piece of relevant conduct submitted at trial that wasn’t charged in the indictment, Ussery allegedly submitted false waivers to Jackson-based First Midwest Bank to draw funding from another construction loan in 2005, according to the release.