Jury Gets Five Defendants, 13 Count banc-serv Fraud Case

By Joseph Coleman
Contributing Editor, Coleman Report
August 4, 2021

The banc-serv trial is over and the jury must make tough decisions for Kerri Agee, Kelly Isley, Nicole Smith, Chad Griffin, and Matt Smith.

The Government requests jurors to ask themselves if it makes sense all five banc-serv employees were part of a conspiracy to defraud the SBA.

“It is what it looks like,” they say.

banc-serv attorneys argue their employees were in a pressure cooker to close SBA loans, compiling hundreds of pages of documents for each loan.

Asks the defense: With complicated rules to follow and many SBA SOP 50 10 changes, banc-serv employees made mistakes, but was it a criminal offense?

Nicole Smith’s attorney argues, “many rookie mistakes were made, but was my client a foot soldier? She didn’t want to lie. She didn’t want to be in any part of this fraud.”

Emails and documents on one loan expose eleven separate lies orchestrated by the defendants, the Government says.

When SBA officials at LGPC reported banc-serv to OIG it ends with an email sent by Kerri Agee to her co-defendants saying, “They got us.”

Did the banc-serv defendants conspire to defraud SBA?

Are they criminally responsible for doing so?

Jury deliberation starts promptly at 9:00am ET at the Birch Bayh Federal Courthouse in Indianapolis.

Let’s recap the counts for each defendant:

Case title: USA v. AGEE, ET AL

KERRI AGEE (5 Counts)
Kerri Agee aka Kerri Agee-Smith, 43, of Noblesville, Indiana, former president, chief executive officer and founder of Banc-Serv Partners LLP (Banc-Serv)
18:1349.F ATTEMPT AND CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MAIL FRAUD (Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution)
(1)

18:1343.F FRAUD BY WIRE, RADIO, OR TELEVISION (Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution)
(2-4)

18:1343.F FRAUD BY WIRE, RADIO, OR TELEVISION (Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution)
(5)

KELLY ISLEY (3 Counts)
Kelly Isley, 38, of Westfield, Indiana, Banc-Serv’s former chief operating officer
18:1349.F ATTEMPT AND CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MAIL FRAUD (Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution)
(1)

18:1343.F FRAUD BY WIRE, RADIO, OR TELEVISION (Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution)
(2,4)

NICOLE SMITH (3 Counts)
Nicole Smith, aka Nicole Smith-Kelso, 42, of Indianapolis, Indiana, a former Banc-Serv employee
18:1349.F ATTEMPT AND CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MAIL FRAUD (Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution)
(1)

18:1343.F FRAUD BY WIRE, RADIO, OR TELEVISION (Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution)
(2,4)

CHAD GRIFFIN (1 Count)
Chad Griffin, 46, of Carmel, Indiana, Banc-Serv’s former chief marketing officer
18:1349.F ATTEMPT AND CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MAIL FRAUD (Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution)
(1)

MATTHEW SMITH (1 Count)
Matthew Smith, 50, of Westfield, Indiana, Banc-Serv’s co-founder
18:1349.F ATTEMPT AND CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MAIL FRAUD (Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud Affecting a Financial Institution)
(1)

Join Us at 1pm ET for Coleman Report Live! to discuss the final chapter of USA v. AGEE, ET AL.