Hot Springs, AR – Duane (DAK) Kees, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced that Berry Roland Bishop, age 67, was sentenced today to serve 60 months in federal prison followed by 3 years of supervised release for his conviction on one felony count of Bank Fraud.  The Honorable Susan O. Hickey presided over the sentencing hearing in the United States District Court in Hot Springs.

According to court records, in 2011, Bishop was the president and sole owner of Alliance Insurance Group of Arkadelphia and the president of M&B Insurance Properties, Incorporated.  An investigation by the FBI revealed that Bishop misrepresented his financial condition to induce Citizens Bank to extend him loans that would not have otherwise been authorized.  Bishop also forged the signatures of his insurance agency clients to obtain loans from the Bank of Prescott without the authorization or permission of those clients.  The fraudulent loans obtained by Bishop exceeded $3.5 million dollars.

To improve the cash flow of his business, Bishop misrepresented his financial condition to induce Citizens Bank to extend him loans.  Bishop represented that M&B properties had no liabilities when, in fact, he was concealing an outstanding $150,000 mortgage and an outstanding $150,000 liability for the assignment of rents.  Because Bishop misrepresented the liabilities and net value of M&B, he induced Citizens Bank to delay repayment of a $200,000 loan in 2017 and 2018.  That loan has never been repaid. 

Bishop also induced the Bank of Prescott to extend him loans.  Bishop entered into loan agreements on his clients’ behalf without their knowledge or authorization by offering the value their insurance policies as collateral to the Bank of Prescott.  In furtherance of this scheme, Bishop forged the signatures of his clients without their knowledge or authorization. 

Bishop was named in an Information filed in December 2018, in the Western District of Arkansas, Hot Springs Division, and entered his guilty plea in December 2018. 

The investigation was conducted by the FBI.  Assistant United States Attorneys Benjamin Wulff and Aaron Jennen prosecuted the case for the United States.

Hot Springs, Arkansas – Duane (DAK) Kees, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas announced today that Berry Roland Bishop, age 67, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, pleaded guilty to the offense of Knowingly Defrauding Financial Institutions. The Honorable Susan O. Hickey accepted the plea in the United States District Court in Hot Springs.

According to the Information filed by the United States Attorney’s Office and the plea agreement accepted by the District Court, Bishop defrauded two area banks by two separate schemes.  Bishop, president of the Alliance Insurance Group of Arkadelphia, forged the signatures of multiple insurance clients and applied for twenty-seven separate loans in their names with the Bank of Prescott.  Bishop applied for these loans without the authorization or knowledge of those clients and, in the process, defrauded the Bank of Prescott out of over $2.1 million.  As part of his plea, Bishop also admitted that he defrauded Citizens Bank out of $200,000 by misrepresenting the financial condition of his company, specifically the condition of the collateral, to induce Citizens to approve loans to his company that would not have otherwise been authorized.  Bishop applied for these loans from Citizens Bank and the Bank of Prescott to improve the cash flow of his business.  According to the plea agreement, both the Government and Bishop agree that the total loss amount attributed to Bishop’s criminal conduct will exceed $3.5 million dollars.

The defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court at a later date. In this case, Bishop faces a maximum sentence of up to thirty years in prison and a fine up to $ 1 million dollars for the Bank Fraud charge.

The FBI investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wulff of the Western District of Arkansas is prosecuting the case.