Jan. 17–GREENEVILLE — A Knoxville hotel owner will serve three-and-a half years in prison for bank fraud.
Jayesh Dahyabhai Patel, 49, of Knoxville, was sentenced Friday to serve 42 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Leon Jordan. Patel was also ordered to pay restitution of $2,806,438.20 to First Community Bank and to serve five years of supervised release upon leaving prison.
Patel was indicted in May 2014 and pleaded guilty in July 2014 to bank fraud. He admitted engaging in a scheme from January 2009 to August 2011 to defraud First Community Bank of East Tennessee in Kingsport providing false tax returns to induce the bank to issue a loan for his purchase and renovation of a Knoxville hotel.
Patel also provided false invoices and false tax returns in order to increase the amount of the loan and to obtain a six-month interest-only payment period.
He later provided more bogus documents to engineer a second loan to finance the sale of a motel to a relative, federal prosecutors said.
