United States v. Thomas Staniforth

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

At the end of a four-day trial, a jury convicted Dr. Thomas Staniforth, a dentist in the town of Wisconsin Rapids, of three counts of making false statements for the purpose of influencing a federally insured bank, the Community State Bank of Wisconsin Rapids, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1014. The judge gave him concurrent prison sentences of eight months.

Staniforth was a long-term customer of the bank and a personal friend of its chief executive officer, Norbert Brunner. As is common with small banks, the bank’s procedures were often informal. In July 1986 Staniforth…