A Kentucky man was convicted Tuesday in federal court of conspiracy, money laundering and bank and wire fraud by using fake financial statements and saying a dead man worked for them.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from 2013 to 2014, Jeffrey Robert Owen, 59, of Prospect, Kentucky, conspired with his wife, Kimberly Dawn Owen, 56, to apply for four commercial real estate loans from three financial institutions using personal financial statements that omitted liabilities and judgments.

Jeffery Owen was convicted of seven felony offenses to include two counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, two counts of bank fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of money laundering after a seven-day jury trial.

After the commercial loans at one of the banks went into default, Jeffrey Owen and his wife took steps to block the collection through fraud, including filing a fraudulent bankruptcy petition to stay foreclosure proceedings on one of the properties.

To obtain escrowed insurance proceeds, Jeffrey Owen also provided the bank with invoices from a fake business and identified an acquaintance who had been dead for several years as one of the people who worked at the business.

To thwart the bank and other creditors, Jeffrey Owen and his wife filed a lawsuit on behalf of one of their entities against Jeffrey Owen’s wife in her individual capacity. Jeffrey Owen used the lawsuit to garnish his wife’s wages, so another creditor would be unable to garnish them. They then spent the money from the garnishment on their household expenses such as the mortgage on their $750,000 home and tuition for their two children at a local private school.

Jeffrey Owen is scheduled for sentencing on July 17, 2024, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. The Court ordered Jeffrey Owen detained pending sentencing. He faces a maximum sentence of 180 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

Kimberly Owen previously pled guilty to misprision of a felony for her conduct. Kimberly Owen is scheduled for sentencing on May 21, 2024, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. She faces a maximum sentence of 3 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

There is no parole in the federal system.

The FDIC Office of Inspection General and the FBI investigated the case.