LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas farmer has been sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison for falsifying loan applications that led to the theft of more than $3.3 million.
Federal prosecutors say Marcus Sweetin lied to lenders so he could secure loans for his farming operation in Arkansas and Prairie counties.
Authorities say Sweetin used fictious serial numbers and invoices to get loans for farming equipment and overstated farmable acreage and understated debt to secure crop loans.
Sweetin was sentenced in Little Rock federal court on Wednesday after earlier pleading guilty to one count of making a false statement on a loan application.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports the 46-year-old Sweetin apologized during his sentencing hearing, saying that “the only person I was thinking about was me.”