Jack Harvard

Harvard was chairman and chief executive officer of Willow Bend National Bank, a federally insured institution in the Dallas area, and chairman of Willow Bend Bancshares — the holding company that also controlled Bonham State Bank — all while serving as mayor of Plano, Texas in the mid-1980s. His convictions arose from three overlapping schemes. In 1987, Dallas businesswoman Diana Cheng approached Willow Bend for a $400,000 loan and a $1 million letter of credit to fund an Indonesian lumber import deal. Because Cheng had reached her borrowing limit, Harvard arranged the financing on the condition that she give him a 10% share of the import business — a corrupt payment in exchange for a bank loan. Cheng secured the loan by pledging a fictitious collateral note payable by a nonexistent party (the "Donge note"); Harvard then arranged for an acquaintance to purchase the note off Willow Bend's books using funds borrowed from the bank itself, disguising the transaction's true nature. Harvard received $10,000 in cash from Cheng. He was convicted of conspiracy, bank bribery, misapplying bank funds, and making false entries in bank records in connection with these loans. Harvard also arranged refinancing of a strip mall loan for the Plano-Shiloh Joint Venture — in which he held a 10% interest — at Bonham State Bank, where he sat as a director. He misrepresented the property's financial condition to Bonham's board (falsely claiming the center was generating cash and 100% leased), allowed the loan to close on personal guarantee agreements he knew were fatally defective, and secretly collected a $10,640 "consulting fee" from Joint Venture loan proceeds without disclosing it to the bank. He was convicted of bank fraud in connection with this transaction. In March 1989, Harvard took two blank cashier's checks from a Willow Bend teller without authorization and in violation of the bank's required logging procedures. He completed one check for $166,201 and used it to purchase a house at a foreclosure auction before he had the funds to cover it, leaving Willow Bend exposed to the obligation for months and causing the bank an actual cash loss. He was convicted of aiding and abetting the misapplication of Willow Bend funds in connection with this scheme.