Convicted Savannah real estate developer Richard Guerard has asked a federal judge to allow him to leave prison because his cooperation with federal investigators led to the indictments of seven former First National Bank officials on bank fraud charges.
Guerard contends his cooperation with the government has caused him to suffer repeated hardships, including being in prison 360 miles from his family and being transported in leg shackles and handcuffs with more serious offenders to testify before a grand jury in Savannah.
Guerard, 45, is serving a 52-month prison term for conspiring with First National Bank officials and employees to defraud the bank.
A federal appellate court has rejected Guerard’s challenge to his sentence imposed Aug. 15, 2011.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney James Durham earlier filed a motion asking that Guerard’s sentence be cut based on “substantial assistance” to prosecutors against others involved in the case.
Guerard’s motion, filed March 4, contends his cooperation with federal prosecutors, including extensive testimony Dec. 4 before a federal grand jury, resulted in the 35-count indictment of former First National president and CEO Heys Edward McMath III and six others on charges they schemed to defraud the bank and other institutions out of millions of dollars.
Prosecutors contend the long-running scheme contributed to the failure of the bank in 2010, which cost the FDIC deposit-insurance fund more than $90 million.
Each of those defendants has pleaded not guilty and they remain free on unsecured bonds awaiting trial.
Defense attorney Joshua Lowther, complains in Guerard’s motion that Guerard is imprisoned in Montgomery, Ala., rather than either of two prisons closer to Savannah.
It also complains of his being transported in “a crowded private (Bureau of Prison) contractor’s bus, loaded with other inmates of various higher security classifications” to the Atlanta federal prison and on to the Emanuel County Detention Center to testify before the grand jury.
He remained in the Atlanta prison after his testimony “under severely restrictive confinement conditions,” the motions contends.
Guerard is asking that his sentence be reduced to time already served.