Former Oklahoma bank president charged in fraud case

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Federal prosecutors have charged the former president of a bank in northwest Oklahoma with conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

The Oklahoman reports 53-year-old Stephen Ward is accused of misapplying tens of thousands of dollars in bank funds for his personal benefit. Two other bank employees have also been charged in the case.

Ward is the former president of the failed First State Bank in Camargo. Prosecutors say the bank opened in 1911 and closed in 2011 after becoming “critically undercapitalized.”

Prosecutors say Ward allegedly wrote hot checks between 2006 and 2010. They say one of those checks was written to the U.S. Treasury for $187,000.

A defense attorney for Ward says the charge on Tuesday wasn’t a surprise. He says Ward plans to enter a guilty plea.