Primis Bank is headquartered in Henrico County. (BizSense file photo)
A local banker will serve more than four years in prison for a long-running, multimillion-dollar lending fraud.
James Stevens, who for 15 years orchestrated what prosecutors described as a “Ponzi loan scheme” at Henrico-based Primis Bank and its predecessors, was sentenced Thursday to serve 51 months in a federal facility.
The 47-year-old lifelong Northern Neck resident was a commercial lender and branch manager at Primis and its previous incarnations Sonabank, EVB and Southside Bank from 2000 to 2023.
He pleaded guilty in February to one count of bank fraud and admitted to a scam that ran from 2008 through June 2023. It involved issuing numerous fraudulent loans in the names of both witting and unwitting Primis customers.
While the loans over the years totaled $5.63 million, according to court records, the loss to Primis was $2.4 million, due to Stevens using newer fraudulent loans to pay down the balance on the previous loans.
Stevens’ crimes extended beyond loans. He also over time withdrew nearly $100,000 from a customer’s account without their knowledge and concealed the withdrawals by changing the billing address on their account so they would no longer receive their monthly account statements.
The scam, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, came to an end when Stevens was hospitalized last year and unable to maintain payments on fraudulently obtained loans.
Stevens and his attorney, Laura Koenig from the Office of the Federal Public Defender, argued for leniency by attempting to illustrate Stevens’ otherwise virtuous life as a hardworking man who made a mistake in judgement that spiraled out of control.
The son of a modular home salesman, Stevens was born as the only boy in a set of triplets and had six total siblings, according to court records.
He was valedictorian of Northumberland High School and graduated from Virginia Tech. He started with the bank as a branch manager, always working in or near his hometown around the Northern Neck.
The court received a stack of letters from Stevens’ supporters including childhood friends, his high school guidance counselor, a former Primis Bank coworker and one of his triplet sisters.
They repeatedly referenced their shock that Stevens could be involved in a crime and cite his community involvement in the close-knit Northern Neck area. For example, several of the letters mention his participation in Hunters for Hunger, through which he’s known to donate every deer he shoots while hunting to a program that feeds homeless families in his area.
“Every other part of his life he shines,” Koenig said during Thursday’s hearing.
About 10 of those supporters were in the courtroom on Thursday. Some of them sobbed as the sentence was handed down.
The U.S. District Court in Richmond, where Stevens’ case was held. (BizSense file)
Koenig explained that the scheme began years ago when Stevens extended loans to a customer who did not make payments and allegedly threatened him when it came time to collect the loans. That same borrower ultimately went to prison and was then unable to pay the loans.
But prosecutors and U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne said any alleged threat from a borrower was no excuse for his actions.
“The defendant was committing fraud on a daily basis for 15 years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Garnett said at Thursday’s hearing.
Koenig also argued that Stevens only pocketed $563,000 of the fraudulent loan proceeds and that the bulk of the money stolen from Primis was in fact used to repay the bank on the older loans. Koenig argued that Stevens’ sentence should be pegged to that lower amount.
Again, Payne wasn’t convinced.
Stevens, wearing a crisp white dress shirt with dark stripes, addressed Judge Payne, expressing his remorse for turning “what most would consider a blessed life upside down.”
Stevens said his goal going forward is to follow a better path guided by his religious beliefs.
“My primary objective is to repent,” he said.
He said he also hopes to serve as an example to others.
“I’d hate for anyone to lose what I have lost,” he said.
Stevens pleaded guilty via a criminal information process, which involved no arrest and a waiver of indictment. He had no prior criminal record and ultimately cooperated with authorities once charged.
He has remained free on a personal recognizance bond and was allowed to leave court on Thursday and self-report to U.S. Marshals to begin his sentence on Oct. 8.
Payne, in closing, said he gave considerable thought to giving Stevens a harsher punishment than the 51-63-month range called for in federal sentencing guidelines, due to the length and deliberate nature of his crime.
But then he read the many letters submitted to the court by Stevens’ supporters. Payne said those letters swayed him in the other direction.
“It is drastically out of character for you and there’s no question about that,” Payne said. “I don’t believe the defendant will commit additional crimes. I think the record is clear that you are a good man that went astray. And the record is clear that you will recover from this.”
Primis Bank, which is headquartered in Henrico and keeps its parent company headquarters in McLean, first disclosed the fraud last summer in a quarterly earnings report.
The bank at the time did not reveal Stevens’ name, only that it discovered the scam and expected to recover the losses through insurance policies.
The bank emphasized at the time that it was a one-off issue and did not involve other employees.
A message seeking comment from Primis CEO Dennis Zember was not returned by press time.
Primis Bank is headquartered in Henrico County. (BizSense file photo)
A local banker will serve more than four years in prison for a long-running, multimillion-dollar lending fraud.
James Stevens, who for 15 years orchestrated what prosecutors described as a “Ponzi loan scheme” at Henrico-based Primis Bank and its predecessors, was sentenced Thursday to serve 51 months in a federal facility.
The 47-year-old lifelong Northern Neck resident was a commercial lender and branch manager at Primis and its previous incarnations Sonabank, EVB and Southside Bank from 2000 to 2023.
He pleaded guilty in February to one count of bank fraud and admitted to a scam that ran from 2008 through June 2023. It involved issuing numerous fraudulent loans in the names of both witting and unwitting Primis customers.
While the loans over the years totaled $5.63 million, according to court records, the loss to Primis was $2.4 million, due to Stevens using newer fraudulent loans to pay down the balance on the previous loans.
Stevens’ crimes extended beyond loans. He also over time withdrew nearly $100,000 from a customer’s account without their knowledge and concealed the withdrawals by changing the billing address on their account so they would no longer receive their monthly account statements.
The scam, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, came to an end when Stevens was hospitalized last year and unable to maintain payments on fraudulently obtained loans.
Stevens and his attorney, Laura Koenig from the Office of the Federal Public Defender, argued for leniency by attempting to illustrate Stevens’ otherwise virtuous life as a hardworking man who made a mistake in judgement that spiraled out of control.
The son of a modular home salesman, Stevens was born as the only boy in a set of triplets and had six total siblings, according to court records.
He was valedictorian of Northumberland High School and graduated from Virginia Tech. He started with the bank as a branch manager, always working in or near his hometown around the Northern Neck.
The court received a stack of letters from Stevens’ supporters including childhood friends, his high school guidance counselor, a former Primis Bank coworker and one of his triplet sisters.
They repeatedly referenced their shock that Stevens could be involved in a crime and cite his community involvement in the close-knit Northern Neck area. For example, several of the letters mention his participation in Hunters for Hunger, through which he’s known to donate every deer he shoots while hunting to a program that feeds homeless families in his area.
“Every other part of his life he shines,” Koenig said during Thursday’s hearing.
About 10 of those supporters were in the courtroom on Thursday. Some of them sobbed as the sentence was handed down.
The U.S. District Court in Richmond, where Stevens’ case was held. (BizSense file)
Koenig explained that the scheme began years ago when Stevens extended loans to a customer who did not make payments and allegedly threatened him when it came time to collect the loans. That same borrower ultimately went to prison and was then unable to pay the loans.
But prosecutors and U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne said any alleged threat from a borrower was no excuse for his actions.
“The defendant was committing fraud on a daily basis for 15 years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Garnett said at Thursday’s hearing.
Koenig also argued that Stevens only pocketed $563,000 of the fraudulent loan proceeds and that the bulk of the money stolen from Primis was in fact used to repay the bank on the older loans. Koenig argued that Stevens’ sentence should be pegged to that lower amount.
Again, Payne wasn’t convinced.
Stevens, wearing a crisp white dress shirt with dark stripes, addressed Judge Payne, expressing his remorse for turning “what most would consider a blessed life upside down.”
Stevens said his goal going forward is to follow a better path guided by his religious beliefs.
“My primary objective is to repent,” he said.
He said he also hopes to serve as an example to others.
“I’d hate for anyone to lose what I have lost,” he said.
Stevens pleaded guilty via a criminal information process, which involved no arrest and a waiver of indictment. He had no prior criminal record and ultimately cooperated with authorities once charged.
He has remained free on a personal recognizance bond and was allowed to leave court on Thursday and self-report to U.S. Marshals to begin his sentence on Oct. 8.
Payne, in closing, said he gave considerable thought to giving Stevens a harsher punishment than the 51-63-month range called for in federal sentencing guidelines, due to the length and deliberate nature of his crime.
But then he read the many letters submitted to the court by Stevens’ supporters. Payne said those letters swayed him in the other direction.
“It is drastically out of character for you and there’s no question about that,” Payne said. “I don’t believe the defendant will commit additional crimes. I think the record is clear that you are a good man that went astray. And the record is clear that you will recover from this.”
Primis Bank, which is headquartered in Henrico and keeps its parent company headquarters in McLean, first disclosed the fraud last summer in a quarterly earnings report.
The bank at the time did not reveal Stevens’ name, only that it discovered the scam and expected to recover the losses through insurance policies.
The bank emphasized at the time that it was a one-off issue and did not involve other employees.
A message seeking comment from Primis CEO Dennis Zember was not returned by press time.
Small point, but I think the initiative is called Hunters for the Hungry.
Just a little heads up to any friends that I may have: if I’m ever arrested for stealing millions of dollars or defrauding innocent customers, please don’t write letters proclaiming your great shock. Please don’t say that other than my terrible crimes, I’m really a virtuous guy. My guess is that most folks are getting sick and tired of hearing such endorsements for lowlife criminals.