A former president of First Security Bank-West in Beulah, N.D., has been sentenced to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to two counts of bank fraud.
The Justice Department said in a press release that Brady Daniel Torgerson was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay a $200 special assessment.
Torgerson was arrested in November 2022 for committing fraud against First Security and Union Bank between 2019 and 2021.
Torgerson funded loans without obtaining necessary financial information, security interest documents or promissory notes. He engaged in deceptive banking transactions by entering false information, increasing loans so that they exceeded the original loan amounts, and extending loan maturity dates to conceal his activities.
While at Union Bank, Torgerson created about $450,000 of fraudulent loan obligations in in the names of three individuals who “neither knew about the creation of these loans nor received the funds described in these obligations,” the release said.