A former top executive of a failed North Georgia bank pleaded for mercy Wednesday for his role in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.
In an emotional address, Randy Jones apologized to Senior U.S. District Judge William O'Kelley, to federal authorities and to the failed Cornelia-based Community Bank & Trust, where he had worked his entire adult life.
Jones, 50, the bank's former executive vice president and chief loan officer, pleaded guilty in January to bank fraud. Federal prosecutors have said Jones received kickbacks from fraudulent transactions involving real estate loans he made beginning in 2005.
O'Kelley will conclude the hearing Thursday, imposing sentences against Jones and three others charged in the scheme. The judge said Jones' fraud was not the sole cause of Community Bank & Trust's failure, "but it was a contributing cause."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell Phillips recommended that O'Kelley send Jones away for 12 years, seven months in prison.
Jones' attorney, Bruce Maloy, countered that a sentence of two years in custody, followed by home confinement, was more appropriate. Jones is needed to care for his two children because his wife, who did not attend the hearing, suffers from depression and other disorders, Maloy said.
James Martin, a psychologist who testified on Jones' behalf, described a Cornelia household in complete disarray. Jones' wife is a hoarder who rarely ventures out of the house, and the upper floor of the home where she resides is filled with clutter, Martin testified. Some rooms are so filled up the doors can only be cracked open, and the only way to walk from one room to another is to use a 2-foot-wide pathway, he said.
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