Michael J. Moore, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, announced that Sidney L. Hall, age 63, of Atlanta, and formerly of Albany, Georgia, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge, W. Louis Sands, in Albany, Georgia, to 48 months imprisonment. Hall was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,979,291 to seven different banks in Southwest Georgia who loaned monies to him under fraudulent pretenses. Hall must serve five years of supervised release after serving his sentence. Hall remains on bond pending surrender to the Bureau of Prisons.
On Dec. 10, 2012, Hall pled guilty to counts 1 and 14 of a 15 count indictment. Count 1 charged the defendant with bank fraud and carried a maximum possible sentence of 30 years imprisonment, a $1,000,000 fine and five years of supervised release after imprisonment. Count 14 charged the defendant with “aggravated identity theft," that is, using the personal identify data of a person, here, the forged signature of a bank officer, in order to commit bank fraud. Aggravated identity theft carried a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of two years, a $250,000 fine and one year of supervised release.
Defendant Hall admitted in his plea agreement that he obtained 70 bank loans at 7 different banks in the total amount of $2.8 million. Hall devised a scheme to lead the lending bank to believe it would have a valid first position lien on the aircraft being financed. In fact, the aircraft in question had already been pledged as collateral to another bank. The government estimated in the plea agreement that at the end of the scheme to defraud Hall had failed to repay approximately $2.7 million to the seven banks who had loaned him money under false pretenses.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Assistant United States Attorney Jim Crane handled the prosecution.
Inquiries regarding the case should be directed to Sue McKinney, Public Affairs Specialist, United States Attorney's Office at (478) 621-2602.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
