More Trouble tied to ANB Financial

The receiver of the defunct ANB Financial of Bentonville is looking to score a second multimillion-dollar judgment against a Benton County developer.

The twist in this case is the $5.56 million loan at the center of the lawsuit was handled by two people who pleaded guilty July 30 to federal crimes involving bribery: former ANB loan officer William B. Hemm and Christopher Lee Talley, who took out the loan on behalf of the CJC Development LLC of Rogers.

In its role as receiver, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. didn’t name Hemm or Talley as defendants in its lawsuit filed July 31. Instead, it sued Jagtar Dhaliwal of Benton County. Dhaliwal had personally guaranteed the loan taken out in November 2006 and defaulted a year later, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.

The FDIC is seeking $6.4 million from Dhaliwal, which includes the unpaid principal of $4.88 million, interest of $1.42 million, other costs and attorneys’ fees.

Dhaliwal hasn’t been charged with a crime.

Hemm and Talley are waiting to be sentenced. Hemm pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe a bank officer and misapplication of bank funds. Talley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe a bank officer. The criminal filings don’t say when the crimes took place, but other court records put the time period around 2006-’07. ANB Financial was closed by the FDIC in May 2008.

In 2011, Talley, Dhaliwal and others were named in a lawsuit for defaulting on a $4.25 million loan from ANB that was taken out at the end of 2006. A judgment was entered on July 18 for $4.3 million against the defendants, who never even bothered to file a response to the lawsuit.

We couldn’t reach Dhaliwal last week.