ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
A former senior vice president of the National Bank of Blacksburg pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of misapplying bank funds.
Harold Chafin, who was manager of the bank's Pearisburg branch until 1994, admitted issuing two cashier's checks without paying for them. The government says he was trying to repay money he had borrowed from a friend.
"I did not gain personally from it," Chafin, 59, told U.S. District Judge James Turk. "I was trying to help some customers, and I'm truly sorry."
Chafin is to be sentenced Aug.5.
Chafin had another bank employee issue three cashier's checks totaling more than $75,000, but he did not pay for them, according to his indictment. Months later, he paid the bank back after being confronted.
He was indicted in January on three counts of misapplication of bank funds and pleaded guilty Monday to two counts, involving $61,000 worth of checks. The third count, involving a check for $15,100, was dropped.
According to the indictment, a friend gave Chafin $30,000 to invest for him in 1992 and lent him another $15,000 in 1994. The friend, Thomas L. Brotherton, then began pressuring Chafin to return the money plus any earnings from it.
Chafin wrote Brotherton two personal checks in October 1994 totaling $51,492, which bounced, the indictment says.
He issued a cashier's check to Brotherton for that amount two weeks later.
He issued another cashier's check to Brotherton that month for $9,978. Six months earlier, he had taken $9,600 out of Brotherton's bank account without Brotherton's knowledge, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Eckert said in court Monday.
The $15,100 check is alleged to have been to cover a debt owed by Dan's Autoville, a used car dealership owned by the late Dan Ratcliffe, a friend of Chafin's.
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