EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A former executive at the Bank of O’Fallon in Illinois admitted in court on Monday to obtaining more than $2 million through a fraud scheme.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Illinois, Andrew Blassie, 69, served as the bank’s executive vice president while he defrauded the bank in a check kite scheme between September 2023 and September 2024.

Blassie allegedly defrauded the bank out of $1,972,887 in the check kite scheme.

Blassie admitted in court that he falsely inflated the balance of his personal checking account at the Bank of O’Fallon by depositing checks he knew were not backed by sufficient funds.

He deposited the checks into four personal accounts at three other banks and one credit union into the Bank of O’Fallon account.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Blassie paid nearly $2.7 million for personal expenses from the falsely inflated account using funds that belonged to the bank. Blassie allegedly concealed the fraud by scrubbing his name and account number from the suspected kiting reports.

Blassie is also accused of persuading a couple from Lebanon, Illinois, into giving him $489,000 of their retirement savings and in return would give the couple two promissory notes. He told the couple he would pay interest on the notes and used money obtained through his scheme to pay that interest.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office also said as security for Blassie’s promissory notes, he pledged 128 of his and his wife’s shares of the parent company, which owns the Bank of O’Fallon.

Blassie’s indictment said he later sold most of these shares and did not use the funds to repay the Lebanon, Illinois couple, leaving them without recourse when Blassie defaulted on the notes.

Blassie pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of interstate transportation of security or funds obtained by fraud.

He is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 18 at 10:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse in East St. Louis.