United States v. Parkes, No. 09-6525 (6th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseDefendant, a businessman, was convicted on 10 counts of bank fraud (18 U.S.C. 1344) involving creation of 10 fraudulent entries on the books of a small bank in Benton, Tennessee. At trial, the government offered the theory that defendant and the bank's president jointly created the phony entries in an effort to disguise earlier, troubled loans to defendant's business. The Sixth Circuit reversed, finding that the evidence was insufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The court improperly excluded evidence that the bank president had, unassisted, previously engaged in a large number of identical frauds. The prosecutor suggested to the jury that acquittal would deliver a financial windfall to defendant. The government offered no direct evidence and insufficient circumstantial evidence to show that defendant knew about or participated in the bank president's fraud, a fraud that the bank president had independent reasons for creating.
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