Spiro Man Sentenced To 41 Months, $613,000 Restitution For Bank Fraud

Muskogee, Oklahoma - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, announced that WESLEY JOE WINKLE, age 34, of Spiro, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 41 months imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $613,135.37 in restitution for Bank Fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1344.

The charges arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The defendant pled guilty in January 2014.

The Information alleged that from on or about August 2010, through April 2013, in the Eastern District of Oklahoma, the defendant, devised a scheme and artifice to obtain moneys, funds, assets securities and other property owned and under the custody or control of The First National Bank and Trust Company of Okmulgee, a federally insured financial institution, by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises.

It was part of the scheme and artifice that the defendant, a loan officer for The First National Bank and Trust Company of Okmulgee, manipulated the accounts of bank customers to show fictitious loans and lines of credit to increase the amount of money in a customer's bank account. WINKLE would then withdraw money from the inflated account for his own personal use.

The Honorable Ronald A. White, District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.

First Assistant United States Attorney Doug Horn represented the United States.