PIKEVILLE, Ky. – A federal jury delivered a guilty verdict yesterday to Brent M. Lee, 41, of Pike County, Kentucky, on charges stemming from a brazen bank fraud scheme while employed at BB&T. Lee now faces decades behind bars for his role in diverting over $248,000 from the bank, enriching himself and a co-conspirator at BB&T’s expense. The three-day trial laid bare a calculated effort to bypass financial controls and line pockets through deceit.
The evidence presented in court detailed Lee’s conspiracy with Paul D. Fannin, 49, a residential developer from Van Lear, and Fannin’s daughter, Chelsea Stone, 25, of Georgetown. The scheme centered around Fannin’s $950,000 loan for the Stone Crest Properties townhome project. When BB&T grew wary of the project’s slow progress and the rate of fund disbursement, they tightened the reins, demanding stricter oversight. Instead of complying, Lee allegedly proposed a workaround: securing a new loan through Stone, with the proceeds flowing directly to Fannin.
The deception didn’t stop there. In October 2014, Lee allegedly had Stone sign paperwork for a $100,000 commercial loan, falsely claiming it was for an embroidery business Stone didn’t own. The funds landed in Fannin’s account. This was followed by a series of additional loans in November 2014 and January 2015, each built on fabricated documents signed by Stone, designed to pay off previous fraudulent loans and funnel another $149,212.50 to Fannin. Lee continued to extend the scheme, even as his departure from BB&T loomed in July 2015.
The illicit funds weren’t squirreled away; they were gambled. Prosecutors revealed that Fannin squandered at least $120,000 of the $250,000 obtained through the scheme at local casinos. BB&T was left holding the bag, suffering a loss exceeding $248,000. Lee was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, two counts of aiding and abetting bank fraud, two counts of misapplication of bank moneys by a bank employee, and four counts of making unauthorized obligations by a bank employee.
Fannin previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, suggesting a possible cooperative agreement with authorities. The verdict was jointly announced by Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Joseph Moriarty, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of Inspector General; and Amy Hess, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Kathryn Anderson and Paul McCaffrey represented the government at trial.
Brent M. Lee is scheduled to be sentenced before Chief Judge Karen K. Caldwell in Pikeville on May 31, 2018, at 12:30 PM. He faces a potential maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, though the final sentence will be determined by the court after considering sentencing guidelines and federal statutes.
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Key Facts
- State: Kentucky
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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