MISSOURI BANK VICE PRESIDENT AND FORMER PASTOR PLEADS GUILTY IN MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR CATTLE INVESTMENT FRAUD SCHEME

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former Missouri bank vice president and loan officer who also served as a pastor has pleaded guilty to multiple federal fraud charges after prosecutors said he used his professional position and community standing to obtain millions of dollars through a purported cattle-buying investment operation that instead funneled money into high-risk stock trading and payments to earlier investors.

Craig Johnson, 45, of Butler, Missouri, entered the guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan Jr. in the Western District of Missouri. Federal prosecutors said Johnson used his position as a loan officer and/or his status in the community to defraud individuals and a financial institution of at least $9,395,882.22 between April 2024 and his termination in February 2026.

Johnson was hired by Community First Bank in 2022 as a vice president and loan officer. At the same time, he served as a pastor at a church in El Dorado Springs until his removal in 2025.

According to information presented in court, Johnson began soliciting what he described as investments by at least 2024. He told participants that their money would be used to purchase cattle that could later be resold for a profit within a relatively short period.

The arrangements differed among investors, but prosecutors said the underlying representation remained substantially the same: Johnson needed capital to purchase cattle and would use the proceeds from later cattle sales to generate returns.

In some cases, Johnson worked directly with prospective investors to arrange loans through Community First Bank, where he served as the loan officer. Those borrowers then turned the loan proceeds over to Johnson.

Federal prosecutors said Johnson did not tell bank officials that he personally stood to benefit from those loan proceeds.

The government said the cattle purchases did not occur as represented.

Instead, Johnson deposited investor funds into a personal investment account and repeatedly traded in small-capitalization and micro-cap securities. Prosecutors said those trades ultimately resulted in the loss of the funds.

Johnson also used money obtained from later victims to make payments to earlier participants in the scheme, creating the appearance that prior cattle transactions had been completed successfully.

During his time at Community First Bank, Johnson served as loan officer for approximately 29 loans and lines of credit totaling $4,476,156.22, according to the Justice Department.

The scheme extended beyond investor solicitations.

Federal prosecutors said Johnson also used his position at the bank to obtain loans using other people’s identities.

In February 2026, at least three loans were created in the names of individuals who were unaware of the transactions and had not authorized them. The proceeds from those loans were used to pay other loans Johnson had previously created in another person’s name.

The government also detailed three large financing transactions that investigators tied to the cattle-buying representations.

On August 5, 2024, Johnson submitted an application to a financial institution in Jefferson City seeking a $1,447,000 loan. The stated purpose was to purchase cow-and-calf pairs and refinance two existing loans.

The financial institution approved $1,447,150 on August 13.

Of those proceeds, $46,809.93 was used to pay one bank loan and $198,714.46 went toward another. The remaining $1,201,475.61 was issued to Johnson for the stated purchase of 400 head of cattle.

The money was deposited the following day.

Prosecutors said no large cattle purchase consistent with the financing agreement followed. Instead, the funds were used to repay investors and for personal expenditures.

A year later, Johnson sought another major loan.

On August 7, 2025, he applied for $1.5 million from a different financial institution, stating that the money would be used to purchase 550 cow-and-calf pairs.

The proceeds were deposited into Johnson’s account on August 13.

Between August 15 and August 19, prosecutors said Johnson transferred $1.45 million from those proceeds into his personal investment account.

On August 19, Johnson submitted another loan application, this time seeking $900,000 for the stated purchase of 300 additional cow-and-calf pairs.

That loan was approved for $900,150, and $900,000 in proceeds was deposited into Johnson’s account.

Johnson then transferred the full $900,000 into his personal investment account.

After obtaining the second and third loans, Johnson presented a bill of sale dated August 30, 2025, that purported to document the purchase of 850 cow-and-calf pairs for $2.825 million from a livestock company in Evanston, Utah.

Federal investigators determined that the livestock company had not sold 850 cow-and-calf pairs to Johnson during that period.

The company owner told investigators that the name appearing on the document appeared to be his, but the signature was not.

The Justice Department said the combined $3,601,475.61 obtained through the three large loans was not used to purchase cattle as represented. Prosecutors said the money was instead directed into Johnson’s personal investment account and used to make payments to earlier victims who believed their cattle transactions had been completed successfully.

Johnson pleaded guilty to federal offenses carrying substantial statutory penalties.

Wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution each carry maximum terms of 30 years. Aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year federal sentence that must run consecutively to any other term imposed.

Those statutory maximums do not determine Johnson’s final punishment.

His sentence will be decided by the court after a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office, taking into account the federal sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing had not yet been scheduled when the guilty plea was announced.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul S. Becker.

The Justice Department identified Johnson’s prosecution as one of the fraud cases being pursued within its broader federal fraud-enforcement structure.

DOJ created the National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7, 2026, with a mission centered on coordinating fraud investigations and prosecutions, working with agencies that administer taxpayer-funded programs, partnering with federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement, and developing data-driven systems to identify fraud.

The department also states that its fraud-enforcement work supports the administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance. That task force is focused principally on fraud, waste and abuse involving federal benefit programs.

Johnson’s case centers on private investors, financial institutions, unauthorized loans, false representations and misuse of his position as a bank officer.

The prosecution shows how a fraudulent investment operation can expand when professional authority, community trust and access to financial systems intersect.

What began as purported cattle investments ultimately became, according to the government’s case and Johnson’s guilty plea, a multimillion-dollar financial fraud operation involving fabricated cattle purchases, high-risk securities trading, unauthorized use of other people’s identities and payments to earlier investors using money obtained from later victims.

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