EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — A former Illinois nonprofit director who federal prosecutors say filed for bankruptcy 10 times in five years has been sentenced to a year in prison for fraud.
Fifty-eight-year-old Mark McFarland of Springfield learned his punishment this week after earlier pleading guilty to bankruptcy fraud charges in federal court in East St. Louis.
According to court records, McFarland filed 10 bankruptcy cases in the Central District of Illinois between April 2009 and August 2013. McFarland was identified as president of Second Chance Inc., a rehabilitation program for juvenile and adult ex-offenders.
After prosecutors determined Second Chance was located in Springfield, where the case belonged, McFarland filed an amended bankruptcy petition stating Second Chance had an Alton address. He produced a lease that had been fraudulently backdated to September 2014.