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Cortez resident pleads guilty to lying to bank
Herald Denver Bureau
Richard C. Shaw got a $1.1 million Small Business Administration loan in 2003 for his business, Sonrise Construction of the Four Corners, LLC.
The loan application included a document that asked if he had ever been arrested or convicted of a major crime. He checked the "no" box, even though he had been convicted of embezzlement and racketeering in New Mexico in 1987, U.S. District Court Judge John Kane said in court Friday.
Shaw was incarcerated and spent five years on probation for the New Mexico conviction, according to court documents.
Shaw's public defender, Kathryn Stimson, declined to comment after Friday's hearing.
A grand jury had indicted Shaw in March on two counts of lying on the loan application forms in August 2003. He pleaded guilty to the second count Friday.
The maximum prison term for the charge is 30 years, although the sentence is likely to be much less.
Kane expected the biggest difficulty in sentencing to be figuring out how much restitution Shaw owes the Bank of Durango.
Federal prosecutor Bob Mydans said the bank is trying to work up restitution numbers.
"We'll do the best we can to agree on as much of it as we can prior to sentencing," Mydans told Kane.
Kane scheduled Shaw's sentencing hearing for Feb. 5, 2010.
Shaw is free on a $10,000 unsecured bond.
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