A Burlington woman has pleaded guilty in federal court to bankruptcy fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a vehicle loan scheme that cost her former employer more than $100,000.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa, 27-year-old Kylie Jo Bench, formerly known as Kylie Jo Parrish, entered guilty pleas on May 27 in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids.
Federal prosecutors say Bench was hired as a loan officer at a Dubuque-based credit union’s Burlington branch in 2022. At the time, she reportedly owed more than $100,000 on two late-model vehicles, a Ford and a Dodge, financed through other lenders.
Authorities say Bench and another individual refinanced the vehicle loans through the credit union after she was hired. However, prosecutors allege that just months later, in August 2022, Bench sold both vehicles to a Cedar Rapids dealership without the credit union’s knowledge and failed to disclose the lender’s security interest in the vehicles.
Investigators say Bench provided the dealership with a fraudulent letter, purportedly signed by a credit union executive and printed on fake letterhead, falsely stating the vehicle loans had been paid in full and carried zero balances.
According to court documents, neither Bench nor the co-borrower had repaid the refinanced loans before the vehicles were sold.
Federal prosecutors also say Bench later filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and falsely stated under oath that she had not transferred property to benefit an insider. In reality, authorities allege the vehicle sales benefited another individual who remained responsible for the loan debt.
Bench is the fourth person convicted of bankruptcy fraud-related crimes in the Northern District of Iowa this year.
She remains free on bond while a presentence investigation is completed. Sentencing will be scheduled before Chief U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams.
Bench faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in federal prison and could receive up to seven years behind bars, along with a fine of up to $500,000 and three years of supervised release.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.