A Virginia man was sentenced to more than four years in prison for a 15-year scheme where he issued millions of dollars in fraudulent loans for his own benefit.
The actions of James Stevens, 47, of Weems, led to a $2.3 million loss to the bank where he was employed as a commercial lender. He also stole nearly $100,000 from a bank customer.
Stevens was sentenced Thursday to 51 months in prison for designing and executing the scheme to defraud Primis Bank, formerly known as Sonabank, Eastern VA Bank and Southside Bank.
According to court documents, Stevens was employed at Primis Bank from 2000 to 2023 as a commercial lender, branch manager and assistant branch manager.
As a commercial lender for Primis, the Lancaster County man had the authority to issue loans on behalf of the bank, as well as the ability to open and access customer accounts and transfer funds into and out of customer accounts.
Beginning in 2008, and continuing through 2023, Stevens exploited his position to issue numerous fraudulent loans in the names of other individuals. Stevens would often create false documentation to support the loan applications using the personal information of multiple bank customers in the process.
Stevens would then use the proceeds of these loans to make payments on other previously-issued fraudulent loans, to pay himself or to pay others.
Stevens also was found to have exploited his personal relationship with one bank customer to access the customer’s personal savings and checking accounts and to withdraw funds from the customer’s accounts. Stevens used his access to the customer’s accounts to change the mailing address on the accounts so that the bank customer remained unaware of the theft which eventually totaled $97,000.
The frauds and thefts perpetrated by Stevens resulted in a total loss to Primis Bank of $2,477,643.
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Crystal Graham
