A Tulsa man has been slammed with federal prison time after masterminding a nearly $700,000 bank fraud scheme that exploited his position of trust at Firstar Bank of Tulsa. Blake Brian Ferguson, 37, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, was sentenced Thursday to 31 months behind bars for ripping off the financial institution he was sworn to protect.
Chief United States District Judge John E. Dowdell handed down the sentence on multiple counts: three counts of bank fraud and one count of engaging in an unlawful monetary transaction. Ferguson will serve five years of supervised release on the fraud charges and three years on the monetary count, all running concurrently. The court also ordered him to pay $144,160 in restitution to the bank and individual victims caught in the fallout.
Ferguson, once a senior officer at the bank, abused customer lines of credit to siphon off $697,060 between January 2013 and September 2015. He admitted during a 2017 plea hearing that he inflated credit limits and funneled loan proceeds to himself—most of it funneled straight into covering gambling debts. The bank had no clue the transactions were fraudulent, believing them to be legitimate customer loan extensions.
“The integrity of the banking system is essential to the economic well-being of our community,” said U.S. Attorney Shores. “In this instance, a senior bank officer betrayed the trust and confidence placed in him by the bank, his staff, and customers. Mr. Ferguson’s sentence sends a signal to the marketplace that fraud will not be tolerated inside our financial institutions.”
Ferguson was allowed to remain free on bond until voluntarily surrendering to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility in June 2019. The delayed surrender didn’t soften the blow of accountability, as federal investigators had built a tight case over months of forensic auditing and transaction tracing. His privilege as a bank insider became his downfall once the paper trail turned red.
The FBI, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation/Office of Inspector General led the probe. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin C. Leitch prosecuted the case, ensuring that Ferguson’s betrayal of trust came with a steep price. The case stands as a stark warning: even white-collar criminals in tailored shirts end up in orange jumpsuits when they bleed their institutions dry.
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Key Facts
- State: Oklahoma
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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