WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Illinois — Former Williamson County State's Attorney Brandon Zanotti was sentenced Wednesday to two years of probation for a scheme to sell seven commercial rental properties by falsifying loan and other bank documents, according to federal prosecutors.
Zanotti was also ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 20 hours community service as part of a federal plea agreement.
Federal prosecutors also have applied to suspend Zanotti’s law license, and it’s now pending before the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.
Zanotti pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court in Benton, Illinois, to one felony count of aiding and abetting the making of a false bank entry.
He admitted that in an April 6, 2022, he met with a bank president and a buyer, and all agreed to fraudulently make it appear as if the loan to buy the properties in Williamson and Franklin counties was actually a refinancing, according to federal prosecutors.
Documents were backdated to falsely indicate the buyer purchased the properties on Feb. 1, 2022, for the falsely inflated price of $545,152. The documents also falsely indicated that the bank was refinancing 80% of that loan, with the buyers bringing 20% in cash to the sale, according to federal prosecutors.
The real sales price for the properties was $436,122, and the buyers were not bringing any cash to the transaction. The bank’s loan to the buyers was approved by the bank’s loan committee based upon the false information, according to federal prosecutors.
Zanotti resigned as state’s attorney in 2022.
The FBI Springfield Office and the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Special U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith from the Eastern District of Missouri handled the prosecution after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois recused from the case.
