On Tuesday, October 24, 2017, it was announced that a Leavenworth woman had pleaded guilty to bank fraud. 49-year-old Brenda Wood owned businesses in the Kansas City area. She pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud. According to the plea, Wood admitted to making false statements to Farmers Bank in Great Bend.
Wood told the bank that her company, Professional Cleaning and Innovative Building Services, had obtained a contract to provide cleaning services at an IRS building in Kansas City, Missouri. In reality, there was no contract of any kind.
Wood’s business did not even make it to the final round of bidding. Nevertheless, the bank extended a $350,000 line of credit to Wood. Wood submitted draw requests while falsely claiming that the money was needed to fulfill the contract.
In another case, Wood carried out a check kiting scheme to artificially increase her bank account balances. The defendant was accused of exchanging and cross depositing more than 473 insufficient fund checks between her accounts at Intrust Bank, the Credit Union of Leavenworth County and Capital Federal Savings.
Brenda Wood is scheduled to be sentenced on January 17. Both parties have agreed to recommend restitution of $4.6 million and a sentence of 78 months in federal prison.