Quick Look

  • The U.S. Department of Justice announced in a press release on Friday, July 14, that a former treasurer of a Nebraska bank was sentenced on July 13 to 36 months in federal prison for participating in a loan fraud scheme related to the construction of a car wash. The former treasurer, Aaron Lunek, previously served as the chief financial officer of Bank of the Valley.
  • According to a DOJ press release from March, Lunek was convicted by a jury in March of one count of bank fraud and one count of attempted bank fraud.
  • The jury found that Lunek defrauded Bank of the Valley, a Nebraska community financial institution where he had served as CFO, and Stearns Bank in St. Cloud, Minnesota, by submitting false and inflated invoices to obtain loans for the construction and operation of a Legacy Express car wash in Columbus, Nebraska. According to the release, U.S. District Judge Brian C. Buescher determined at the sentencing hearing that Lunek abused his treasurer position to both commit and conceal the fraud.

Deep Dive

At sentencing, Judge Buescher found that Lunek's prior role as CFO "significantly facilitated the commission and concealment of the fraud against the victim banks," Friday's press release noted.

The DOJ noted in announcing the 36-month sentence that there is no parole in the federal system. Lunek will serve five years of supervised release after completing his prison term, and the judge also ordered Lunek to pay a $10,000 fine, according to Friday's press release.

Bank of the Valley, headquartered in Bellwood, Nebraska, has seven locations in the state and offers community, business, and agricultural banking services, according to its website. According to an indictment first filed in July 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, Lunek served as the bank's CFO from around August 8, 2018, to around May 4, 2022.

The indictment also showed that Lunek owned Living Waters RE, a Nebraska-registered limited liability company created to build a car wash planned to operate in Columbus.

During his tenure as treasurer, which began around February 1, 2021, Lunek used false and inflated contract invoices to obtain loans related to the car wash construction, defrauding or attempting to defraud the two banks, according to the March conviction press release.

The bank fraud charge involved Lunek abusing his CFO authority to submit false invoices to Bank of the Valley to obtain additional car wash construction loan funds, ultimately securing two loans totaling approximately $4.3 million.

Meanwhile, the jury also found Lunek guilty of attempting to defraud Stearns Bank in a related scheme, using false invoices to artificially inflate the car wash property's value in hopes of obtaining a $3.5 million refinancing loan, Friday's press release noted.

The former CFO also relied on a series of shell companies to help conceal the fraud and failed to disclose "significant personal debts owed to relatives" related to his Stearns Bank loan application, according to the release.

The DOJ declined to comment beyond its Friday press release. Attorneys for Lunek and Bank of the Valley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.