Tomah Car Dealers Charged with Bank Fraud

MADISON, WI—Stephen P. Sinnott, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Timothy E. Vernier, 57, and Stephen N. Vernier, 63, both of Tomah, Wis., were charged today in a one count information filed in U.S. District Court in Madison with one count of bank fraud.

The information alleges that from on or about January 1, 2004, to on or about August 28, 2008, Stephen N. Vernier and Timothy E. Vernier devised a scheme to defraud the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Tomah and First Bank of Tomah. The information alleges that Stephen N. Vernier and Timothy E. Vernier operated a car dealership in Tomah known as Morris-Vernier Motor Sales, Inc. and that during the pendency of the scheme to defraud, they made false statements to Farmers & Merchants Bank and First Bank, resulting in a loss to Farmers & Merchants Bank of $1,767,353.84 and a loss to First Bank of $296,861.

The case will be scheduled for entry of a guilty plea before the assigned judge in the near future. Upon conviction, Stephen N. Vernier and Timothy E. Vernier face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

The charges against Timothy E. Vernier and Stephen N. Vernier were the result of an investigation conducted by the Wausau Resident Agency of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecution of this case has been assigned to Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant C. Johnson.

You are advised that a charge is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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