Mid-Missouri man charged in $27.1 million bank fraud scheme

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A mid-Missouri man faces criminal charges in a 52-count indictment over a $27.1 million bank fraud scheme.

A federal grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday on Tod Ray Keilholz, 59, of Jefferson City. Keilholz is charged with 24 counts of money laundering, 10 counts of making false statements to financial agencies, 10 counts of identity theft and eight counts of bank fraud.

Keilholz is accused in a scheme that generated more than $12.4 million from PPP loans for four businesses and a multi-million-dollar fraudulent loan scheme in Indiana. Investigators say this happened while he owned TRK Construction, LLC; TRK Valpo, LLC; TL Builders, LLC; and Project Design, LLC.

According to the indictment, when Keilholz applied for four PPP loans, he failed to disclose his ownership in the other three businesses, leading to materially false and fraudulent claims in the loan applications and supporting documentation. Keilholz reportedly inflated the income of those businesses and claimed payrolls for employees who did not exist or no longer worked for him.

Keilholz used PPP loan proceeds for unauthorized purposes other than legitimate payroll, lease and mortgage interest, and utilities as required by the PPP. He generated $3,526,771 in a loan and line of credit over a development in Valparaiso, per the indictment. He is also accused of providing materially false information to obtain bank loans, loan extensions, loan renewals, and loan forbearance.

Investigators say Keilholz applied for a $7.8 million PPP loan for TRK Valpo, but the loan was denied by the bank. He also applied for a second round of PPP loans for the other three businesses, all which were denied.

Keilholz remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Sept. 20, 2022. The court granted the government’s motion for a detention hearing, which cited evidence that Keilholz posed serious risks of flight and obstruction of justice, as well as a threat to the safety of other persons and the community.

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