A former vice president and loan officer for Community First Bank of the Heartland in Mt. Vernon has been sentenced in federal court for committing bank fraud and multiple arsons.
The U.S. attorney reports 53-year-old Richard Pigg received a 12-year prisons sentence.
Pigg previously pleaded guilty in April to six counts of bank fraud and three counts of arson. He currently resides in Texas, but lived in Mt. Vernon, at the time he committed the crimes from May 2011 to December 2016.
According to court documents, Pigg convinced bank customers to buy rental properties in Centralia, Mt. Vernon, Murphysboro and West Frankfort on his behalf through mortgage loans financed at the bank. Pigg concealed his personal financial interest from the bank while facilitating the loans.
In an attempt to use insurance benefits to pay off bank loans, Pigg burned multiple properties. Some properties Pigg burned more than once, such as a Centralia property that was partially damaged in January 2016 and then destroyed by fire in February 2016.
Pigg must serve at least 85% of his sentence.
During his hearing, the sentencing judge described Pigg as a “Jekyll and Hyde” who destroyed people’s lives with his horrific fraud.
Pigg had relied on letters of support citing his good works, but the judge told Pigg that this was like a man who robs a bank, gives some of money to a homeless shelter, then burns the homeless shelter down and wants credit for donating to the homeless shelter.
