LITTLE ROCK – A Little Rock man pleaded guilty today to making false statements on loan applications, costing banks and lenders over $3.3 million. Cody Hiland, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Diane Upchurch, Special Agent in Charge of the Little Rock Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced the guilty plea of Marcus Shane Sweetin, 46, of Little Rock. Sweetin entered his plea on Thursday before United States District Judge James M. Moody, Jr.

Sweetin pleaded guilty Thursday to an Information charging him with one count of making a false statement on a loan application. Sweetin operated Sweetin Farms LLC, which farmed two parcels of land in Arkansas County and Prairie County. In April 2013, Sweetin applied for a loan from AgHeritage Farm Credit Services that sought to recoup money his company allegedly spent acquiring a Case 290 Magnum Tractor. The tractor itself was to serve as collateral, and in support of the loan, Sweetin gave AgHeritage an invoice from an equipment dealer reflecting the tractor had been purchased outright and a copy of the company check that had supposedly been used to pay.      MORE