Ex-ARM Business Owner to Serve Time in Federal Prison

Almost a year ago, we reported on William “Bill” S. Ferguson II and his son Jason. The father-son duo had been found in contempt of court for violating a previous order to stop their illegal debt collection activities.

The two biggies:

(1) Continuing to operate ARM businesses even after being ordered to cease operations

(2) Collecting debts and not remitting payments to his clients.

The news today is: Ferguson II, Sr., has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison, and will have to pay $304,477 in restitution to Chase Bank and $126,992 in restitution to Hancock Bank.

Ferguson must report to prison by 4 June 2012.

Which brings us to:

(3) Defrauding banks.

According to a story in Louisiana’s Advocate, Ferguson allegedly “defrauded Chase and Hancock banks through the intentional deposit of bogus checks into Bush & Kennedy’s [Ferguson's former ARM company] accounts. After the worthless checks were deposited into those accounts, Ferguson withdrew money he knew would not be covered by the checks.”