Nehawka farmer ordered to pay $500,000, spend 30 days in jail for overstating assets

By: Paul Hammel - November 10, 2023 11:49 am

(Getty Images)

LINCOLN — A 34-year-old Nehawka, Nebraska, farmer has been sentenced in federal court to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay $500,206 in restitution for overstating his farm assets to obtain a bank loan.

The farmer, Nolan Balfour, admitted that he had inflated the amount of crops he had harvested and the number of cattle he was raising after he had filed for bankruptcy in 2018.

The bank fraud occurred in 2017, when Balfour submitted a financial statement to First Nebraska Bank to renew a $1.1 million operating loan.

The bank suffered an undisclosed financial loss, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The case was investigated by the FBI.

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Paul Hammel

Senior Reporter Paul Hammel has covered the Nebraska state government and the state for decades. Previously with the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha Sun, he is a member of the Omaha Press Club's Hall of Fame. He grows hops, brews homemade beer, plays bass guitar and basically loves traveling and writing about the state. A native of Ralston, Nebraska, he is vice president of the John G. Neihardt Foundation.

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