Ramsey Town Center Financier Gets 3 Mos, $30K Fine

Ross William Sandison, former vice president and shareholder at Community National Bank in North Branch, also must pay a $30,000 fine.

The original federal indictment against Sandison, and two other former bank executives, included 29 charges and was issued in April 2009. All the charges but one were dropped later that year in a plea deal.

According to the federal indictment, in 2003, Community National Bank solicited 19 other financial institutions to participate in financing the Ramsey Town Center development—a 320-acre, mixed-use development in Ramsey—by lending $35 million with the option of extending another $15 million. Community National Bank acted as the lead bank for the loan.

Sandison and the two other former bank executives told the participating banks that disbursements from the loan would be used for project improvements but instead used loan proceeds to pay off $3 million in prior loans from Community National Bank and to put money into their own pockets, according to the indictment.

In 2005, Ramsey Town Center defaulted on the $35 million loan—and the participating banks suffered losses exceeding $20 million, according to court documents.