YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Four Colorado residents pleaded guilty to federal charges Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., for their part in a real estate fraud scheme connected to the Indian Ridge Resort in Branson West.
David Drake and Donald Snider Jr., partners in development company Western Sites Services, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The charges come a little more than three years after Snider, along with Indian Ridge Resort Inc. owner and Springfield developer Jim Shirato, pleaded guilty and were sentenced in the Western District of Missouri’s federal court for violating the Clean Water Act. Those charges stemmed from damage to nearby Table Rock Lake caused by storm-water runoff at Indian Ridge, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.
According to a news release from Kansas U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom’s office, Drake and Snider admitted they and other conspirators made false representations to obtain loans from three banks for the Indian Ridge project. Among them was Topeka, Kan.-based Columbian Bank and Trust Co., which Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shut down in 2008, halting construction on the development.
Drake’s wife, Vickie Hall, and Snider’s wife, Heather Gibbs, both pleaded guilty to one count of concealing a felony.
Gibbs, a 2 percent owner of Western Site Services, admitted having knowledge that invoices submitted to Columbian Bank were in violation of the loan agreement because they included overhead and profits in line-item costs.
Hall admitted to aiding concealment of the felonies by using her company, Colorado Modular Home Finders Services LLC, to withdraw deposits from the bank.
U.S. attorney’s office spokesman Jim Cross said dates for sentence hearings have not been set. Prosecutors and the defense team have agreed to recommend five-year prison terms for Drake and Snider, and three years of probation for Gibbs and Hall, according to the release.
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