Former Farmer Gets Federal Prison for Lying to North Iowa Bank to Get Line of Credit

A former farmer who lied to a north Iowa bank to get an operating line of credit of nearly a million dollars has been sentenced to six months in federal prison.

 In a plea agreement, 41-year-old Mashon Van Mill of Shell Rock admitted he lied to the bank when he applied for a $1 million farm operating line of credit. To secure the loan, he provided the bank a balance sheet that claimed he possessed over $2 million worth of corn in storage to use as collateral for the loan.  

 An employee of the bank got suspicious and sent a letter to the elevator at which Van Mill had claimed to be storing corn.  The bank received a letter back, purportedly signed by the elevator owner indicating Van Mill had corn in storage.  

When law enforcement later showed the letter to the elevator owner, he denied sending it and said he had never seen the letter.  He also confirmed Van Mill had no corn in storage at the elevator at the time of the lie. Investigators determined Van Mill had also lied about money he was owed and the farm equipment he owned. 

By the time his deceit was discovered, the bank had lent Van Mill over $870,000, with him defaulting on the entire amount, plus several other loans from the bank.  

On October 15, 2025, Van Mill pleaded guilty to making a false statement to a financial institution. On April 1st, he was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams to six months in federal prison and ordered to make restitution of the over $870,000 to the victim bank.  Van Mill must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after prison.

At the time of sentencing, the bank had recovered almost $260,000 from Van Mill by garnishing Van Mill’s wages and Van Mill’s sale of various pieces of property.   

 Van Mill is to surrender to the United States Marshal on April 27th.

 The case was investigated by the FDIC – Office of Inspector General and the FBI.