GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (From The Green Bay Press Gazette) -- An Appleton banker has pleaded guilty to his part in what federal authorities claim was a bank fraud scheme led by De Pere businessman Ron Van Den Heuvel.

Paul J. Piikkila, a loan officer for Horicon Bank's Appleton office, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Green Bay to one count of participating in a scheme to defraud the bank.

Prosecutors claim Piikkila used his position to provide more than $1 million in loans to Van Den Heuvel and his wife, Kelly Van Den Heuvel, in 2008 and 2009.

According to the plea agreement:

Piikkila had authority to make loans up to $250,000 without requiring approval from the bank's Business Lenders Committee.

He authorized a loan of that amount to the Van Den Heuvels in January 2008, and, a month later, proposed that the bank loan Van Den Heuvel $7.1 million. The bank's committee investigated Van Den Heuvel's credit and discovered he had several judgments against him from other banks. The committee declined the loan.

Piikkila made several attempts to restructure the $7.1 million loan proposal, but the committee continued to deny them and eventually told him to authorize no more loans to Van Den Heuvel or any of his business entities.

A year later, Van Den Heuvel still had paid nothing on that original $250,000 loan, but Piikkila authorized several similar or smaller loans, none of which were large enough to require approval. Most of those loans were made to "straw borrowers" -- people acting as the responsible borrowers but who were actually just funneling the money to Van Den Heuvel.

Piikkila prepared the paperwork for the loans to prevent his bosses from realizing that he was violating their instructions not to loan money to Van Den Heuvel or his businesses.

Neither the straw borrowers, at least some of whom worked for Van Den Heuvel, nor Van Den Heuvel himself paid back any of the loans. At least one of the straw borrowers was Van Den Heuvel's former brother-in-law and another was the Van Den Heuvels' nanny, a woman who barely could speak English. Kelly Van Den Heuvel was primarily responsible for the loan obtained through the nanny. Kelly Van Den Heuvel allegedly told Piikkila the nanny earned $50,000 a year, but the nanny told authorities she wasn't getting paid at all and that, in fact, Kelly Van Den Heuvel had been running up debt on the nanny's credit cards.

Van Den Heuvel, whom court documents describe as "a member of a wealthy and prominent family in Green Bay, operated at least seven business entities that he used interchangeably.

While many of the straw investors believed the money was going for purchase equipment or operating capital for Van Den Heuvels' businesses, large sums were going toward various unpaid debt, and some went toward the Van Den Heuvels' personal expenses, including rent they paid for a luxury box at Lambeau Field.

The straw borrowers who cooperated with investigators "agree than Ron and Kelly Van Den Heuvel lived a high-end lifestyle, including an expensive house, another residence in Florida, expensive automobiles, a live-in nanny, expansive use of credit cards and a private plane."

The bank lost more than $700,000 as a result of the loans.

Once the bank started trying to collect on collateral offered as security on the loans, it learned that much of the collateral property wasn't worth what it had been represented or was already encumbered by other banks trying to collect on loans.

"Ownership of some of the collateral was in dispute and it appears that Ron pledged collateral that he did not necessarily own," the sentencing agreement states.

Piikkila faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agree not to charge him with additional offenses. He will be sentenced July 29.

The Van Den Heuvels, like Piikkila, each face a count of conspiring to commit bank fraud. Ron Van Den Heuvel also faces seven counts of executing a bank fraud scheme and five counts of making false statements to influence a bank loan. He faces up to 30 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines on each count.

Kelly Van Den Heuvel also faces one count of executing a bank fraud scheme and one count of making false statements to influence a loan action.

Both are awaiting trial.

Along with the criminal charges, Ron Van Den Heuvel faces numerous lawsuits by investors whom he led to believe he was developing a waste-to-energy procedure that would put an end to landfill waste.

That business, Green Box Green Bay LLC, filed for bankruptcy in April.