Metro-east developer, banker brother-in-law plead guilty to loan fraud schemes
A prominent metro-east developer and his banker brother-in-law pleaded guilty to a years-long loan fraud scheme in the U.S. District Court for Southern Illinois.
Gregg Crawford, 65, of Columbia, and his brother-in-law, Francis Eversman, 74, of Collinsville, worked together from 2011 to 2020 to create fraudulent loans on highly overvalued properties by taking advantage of people who were financially disadvantaged, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Crawford and Eversman appeared in court on June 23 and both waived their right to be indicted and instead pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
Each faced one charge of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, which carries a $1 million fine and a possible sentence of 30 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. Their sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 14.
Crawford was a graduate of Belleville East High School and president of Main Street Developers and Mid-America Contracting, which has offices in St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans, Dallas and Phoenix. His other ventures include Cave Creek Properties, Main Street Redevelopment, Main Street Abbey and Searchlight Properties.
They own or have invested in multiple metro-east projects including Mungo’s Uptown in Collinsville, The Main Street Abbey wedding venue in Columbia, and others.
In 2011, Crawford began recruiting straw purchasers, who buy property on behalf of someone who otherwise would not be able afford the purchase, the charges against him said.
Crawford’s straw purchasers had “poor credit scores, payment delinquencies, and incomes that would not support their mortgage loans,” court documents said.
Crawford reassured his victims by saying the bank loans in their name would help their credit score, the documents said. Crawford would also then pay the straw purchasers cash for allowing him to use their names on the loans.
Eversman, a senior loan officer at Tempo Bank in Trenton, would review and approve the fraudulent loans. Eversman approved 30 such loans from November 2011 to March 2017, court documents said. The loans would be approved on the promise of renovating the properties, the documents said.
But Crawford would use some of the loan proceeds for purposes other than improvements to the properties, according to the court records. They do not specify how Crawford used those funds.
Court documents said Crawford would sometimes purchase properties from the straw purchasers for no payment, but would assume the loans.
In 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an independent bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department, began an investigation on the suspicious loans. When Crawford learned of this, he instructed a straw purchaser to lie to investigators, later checking up on them to see if they had done so, a criminal complaint said.
“Every American citizen deserves to walk into their bank and trust the people behind the counter. In southern Illinois, these people are usually our neighbors and friends, people that we trust with our money and well being. The defendants in this case violated that trust through schemes aimed to self-serve and increase wealth,” FBI Springfield Assistant Special Agent in Charge Karen Marinos said in a press release.
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 11:21 AM.
Join the Conversation
Anyone can read the comments, but you must be a subscriber or logged in with a registered account to contribute. If you do not have a registered account, you can sign up for one below (it's free).
Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the Community Guidelines.
All Comments