United States v. Phillips
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
731 F.3d 649 (2013)
Lacey Phillips and Erin Hall (defendants), after being denied a mortgage from one bank, were urged by loan broker Brian Bowling to apply to Fremont Investment & Loan, which often approved loans without verifying income; Bowling instructed only Phillips to formally apply due to her better credit, while also telling her to include Hall's income anyway because the bank supposedly wanted the total household income used for repayment. Based on this combined income reporting, Phillips and Hall were charged with bank fraud for knowingly making a false statement to influence a federally insured bank; the trial court excluded evidence of Bowling's specific instructions to Phillips, and the jury convicted both defendants.
Whether a person who makes a false statement to a bank on a loan application is guilty of bank fraud if she made the statement knowingly, for the purpose of influencing the bank's action.