No jail time for metro-east contractor who admitted to bank fraud in federal court
A federal judge has sentenced a metro-east businessman to three years of supervised release, 200 hours of community service and a $9,500 fine for bank fraud as part of a yearslong scheme with his brother-in-law that involved derelict homes.
Chief Judge Nancy Rosenstengel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois rejected the prosecution’s request Thursday that she send Columbia contractor Gregg Crawford to prison for at least a year.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Burke argued at the sentencing hearing that incarceration would reflect the seriousness of the case and deter others from committing similar crimes, and that Crawford was able to repay his 30 fraudulent mortgage loans because of his wealth.
“People should not be able to buy down their sentencing simply because they have money,” he said.
Rosenstengel questioned what prison time would accomplish, either as a deterrent to others or as a punishment for Crawford, given that he’s now a 66-year-old retiree with health problems who also serves as the primary caregiver for his ailing wife.
The judge emphasized that Crawford had no criminal record before the fraud case. His St. Louis attorney, David Niemeier, called him a “devoted family man” with three grown children and five grandchildren. Ten of his supporters filled two rows of benches at the hearing.
“We believe a term in prison is not necessary to protect the public from future harms,” Niemeier said.
Conspiracy to commit bank fraud is a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release, which is similar to probation — and a $1 million fine.
Crawford and his brother-in-law, Francis “Frank” Eversman, of Collinsville, a senior loan officer at the former Tempo Bank in Trenton, pleaded guilty June 23. Rosenstengel released both on personal-recognizance bonds after they agreed to surrender passports and not possess firearms
According to court documents, Crawford and Eversman worked together from 2011 to 2020 to falsify loan applications so that “straw buyers” recruited by Crawford could get mortgages and pretend to purchase highly overvalued properties from his companies.
“I’m truly sorry, and I take full responsibility for my actions,” Crawford said in a statement at Thursday’s hearing. He specifically apologized to his wife, other family members, friends, the bank and the court.
After the hearing, Crawford declined to comment further as he and Niemeier exited the courthouse.
Historic homes sat vacant and deteriorated
In many cases, the bank loans and appraisals were predicated on promises that historic homes would be renovated. But many sat vacant and deteriorating for years. Several in Belleville and Swansea were demolished after officials deemed them unsafe.
Spectators at Thursday’s hearing included Lori Creason Powell, a Belleville rehabber and real estate investor. She lives in a historic neighborhood where Crawford owned a vacant home in disrepair. At one point, a squatter lived in a tent in the backyard.
Powell said she was happy to hear that Rosenstengel read not only letters of support from Crawford’s family and friends, but also letters from people who believe he harmed the Belleville community by allowing homes to become eyesores, lowering property values and increasing crime.
“(His wealth) was built on the backs of our neighborhoods,” Powell said. “And I really hope when he’s doing his 200 years of community service that it will make an impact on him, although I don’t think it will.
“Even if he had to spend a year in jail, that wouldn’t change him as a human being or change how he looks at the world.”
Powell said Crawford benefited from a high-quality defense that probably outmatched government resources, judging by its legal maneuvering and number of documents filed.
Powell called it “smart” for his attorneys to finalize Everman’s case first because of his lesser role in the crime, his age and health issues and said it set a precedent for Crawford’s light sentence.
“I hope that if I ever turn to a life of crime that I am similarly resourced,” Powell said. “I feel like he and Mr. Eversman were very well represented.”
Eversman’s role in the scheme was that he steered Crawford’s loans through the bank’s approval process for the straw buyers who were pretending to buy his homes, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Steven Weinhoeft’s office last year.
In December, Eversman was sentenced to three years of supervised release, 40 hours of community service and a $9,500 fine.
Much discussion at Thursday’s hearing focused on whether Crawford was more “culpable” than Eversman. Burke said Crawford was the one who recruited people with financial problems to be straw buyers and encouraged one to lie to investigators.
Niemeier told Rosenstengel that Crawford had always intended to pay back the mortgages, and he didn’t personally profit from the scheme. Burke countered that a lack of “intended loss” didn’t erase the risk of loss created by his fraudulent actions.
“The loss is certainly not zero,” Burke said. “It may be different, but it’s certainly not zero.”
Crawford described as wife’s ‘caretaker’
Gregg Crawford’s wife, Jane Crawford, sells real estate, formerly under the company names Concept Real Estate and Palmer Properties. She wasn’t charged or mentioned in court documents related to the federal fraud case.
At Thursday’s hearing, Niemeier told Rosenstengel that Jane Crawford had a “massive heart attack” in April, and that her husband does the shopping, housework, lawn maintenance and other chores and takes her to doctor appointments.
Appraisals conducted on the homes that straw buyers were pretending to buy from Gregg Crawford and his companies were often based on renovation plans, but he used some of the money for other purposes, according to court documents.
It’s unknown how much Crawford spent on renovations or what were the “other purposes.” His many projects include the $5.7 million redevelopment of a former Columbia church into a venue called Main Street Abbey with shops, lofts, a hotel and microbrewery.
Prosecutors didn’t identify the addresses or cities involved in the fraud scheme in publicly accessible documents.
St. Clair County parcel records show that Crawford and two of his companies bought at least 15 homes in Belleville and on its Swansea border at low prices and sold them for 10 to 40 times more within days, weeks or months to people who got mortgage loans from Tempo Bank.
In all but one case, the Crawford companies Main Street Redevelopers and Mid America Contracting regained control when buyers transferred ownership to them via quitclaim deeds.
In 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees banks, began investigating suspicious loans authorized by Eversman, court documents show. Also involved were the department’s office of inspector general and the FBI’s Springfield office.
Crawford and Eversman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud before being formally charged.
“Typically, people are charged by a complaint or an indictment by the grand jury,” a spokeswoman for Weinhoeft’s office said last year. “But in this case, they both pleaded guilty to an ‘information.’ So basically, their lawyers contacted our office instead of waiting on charges.”
Gregg and Jane Crawford and their companies have bought and/or sold more than 100 homes, apartment complexes, commercial buildings and vacant lots in St. Clair County in the past 25 years, parcel records show. That includes about 60 in Belleville.
Most of the structures are historic or aging, and many were showing signs of disrepair well before the Crawfords bought them, according to Google street-view photos. Some were renovated or repaired, sold or rented, although the number and extent are unclear.
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 5:54 PM.
