A man who may have faked his own death is facing charges that he defrauded a US bank by pretending to buy used cranes.
Larry Michael Nixon, 55, was presumed dead after his boat hit a ship in Galveston Bay in August 2003.
By that point, a company he owned, L & D Interests Inc, trading as Delta Crane Inc in Houston, Texas, had run up debts of $4m on credit extended to him by Minnwest Bank Central in Minnesota, according to federal charges filed in October.
In 2002 to February 2003, the charges against him allege that he offered to pay Texas firm Rhino Machinery and Rental to make invoices for cranes that Nixon claimed to have purchased elsewhere. Rhino also forwarded cash from the bank to a bank account for Nixon’s company.
On one occasion in February 2003, Nixon requested $380,000 for a 1982 Link-Belt crane, but Link Belt says that no crane was made with the serial number given.
Nixon was arrested in January 2004 on another used crane fraud case brought against him in West Virginia.
Associated Press reported that Nixon pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison for taking $425,000 for a crane he did not own or deliver.
At time of writing, no date for a Houston court appearance had been set.
