United States Attorney
Northern District of Texas

1100 Commerce St., 3rd Fl.
Dallas, Texas 75242-1699

Telephone (214) 659-8600
Fax (214) 767-0978

FORMER BANK PRESIDENT SENTENCED ON
BANK FRAUD CONVICTION

DALLAS - Ricky Dale Howard, the former President of First National Bank (FNB) in Bowie, was sentenced today in federal court in Dallas to 46 months in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Howard, age 45, pled guilty in January to one count of bank fraud, and as part of that plea agreement, agreed to pay nearly $4.5 million in restitution to Legend Bank (formerly FNB) and to St. Paul Insurance Company. He was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer who ordered that Howard surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on June 19, 2007.

In related cases, Joe Bob Combs, 46, of Nocona, Texas, was sentenced in December 2006 to 24 months imprisonment, following his guilty plea in August 2004 to one count of conspiracy to commit misapplication of funds by a bank officer. He was also ordered to pay $1,631,812 in restitution.

Jerry Wayne Ayres, 52, who pled guilty in January 2006 to one count of conspiracy to misapply bank funds, was sentenced in mid-December to 12 months imprisonment and ordered to pay $1,328,886 in restitution, jointly and severally with his father, Jack Horace Ayres. Jack Horace Ayres, 73, pled guilty in November 2006 to one count of conspiracy to misapply bank funds and was sentenced in January to eight months in prison.

According to documents filed in Court, FNB customers Joe Bob Combs and Jack Horace Ayres admitted that they overstated the amount of cattle they owned as collateral for loans on security agreements and other documents submitted to the bank. The bank president, Ricky Dale Howard, would then vouch for the credibility of the fraudulent documents when presenting them to the bank’s loan committee, thereby causing the bank to lend money to Combs and Ayres.

Another bank customer, Jerry Wayne Ayres admitted that he conspired with Ricky Dale Howard to misapply funds belonging to FNB by repeatedly depositing checks drawn on insufficient funds to conceal from officers of FNB the fact that his bank account was overdrawn. Ayres signed blank checks drawn on an account at Windthorst National Bank knowing that the checks would be drawn on insufficient funds and deposited into an account at FNB. This was done to artificially inflate the balance in his account at FNB without the knowledge or approval of FNB officers or loan committee.

These cases resulted from the investigative efforts of the Wichita Falls, Texas, office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Lynn Hastings prosecuted the cases.

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