Former Executive at Texas Bank Gets 22-Year Sentence for Fraud
May 11, 2011
HOUSTON -- The former vice chairman of First City Bancorp. of Texas was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme. Fransisca Jeffery, 53 years old, was convicted by a federal jury on charges of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering in May. He is currently serving a 12 1/2-year sentence on a separate but related 32-count federal bank-fraud and money-laundering conviction in 1993. In addition to the 262-month prison term, which he will serve concurrently, Mr. Jeffery was given a three-year term of supervised release and ordered to pay about $10 million in restitution. An attorney for Mr. Jeffery said he has appealed the conviction and sentence and would represent himself in future court proceedings. According to the U.S. Attorney's office in Houston, Mr. Jeffery hired a consultant and from 1988 to 1990 paid him fees of $10.5 million. He then received kickbacks of $1.7 million from the consultant in the form of money laundered through banks around the country. The bank collapsed in 1992 after it failed to find a merger partner or investor, and federal regulators seized its 20 banks.
