A former Salisbury man who once operated a well-known printing business and served on the Hebron Savings Bank Board of Directors is facing up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to making a false statement on a loan or credit application, U.S. Justice Department prosecutors said.

Prosecutors announced their plea agreement with Brian Thomas Twilley, now of Greenbackville, last Wednesday.

In addition to having owned a printer’s shop on Snow Hill Road, Twilley, 57, was a former member of the Hebron bank board and served on the faculty for the Economics and Finance Department at Salisbury University.

From April 2010 through March 2017, prosecutors said, Twilley provided false personal financial statements to Hebron that omitted from his net worth a $200,000 Home Equity Line of Credit due to another bank that should have been paid off and closed with the proceeds of a separate equity credit line that Twilley had obtained from Hebron.

Twilley also provided false personal financial statements to a third bank, according to the pleading documents.

As detailed in his plea agreement, in August 2006 Hebron issued Twilley a $350,000 home equity credit line for the purpose of paying off and closing his $200,000 at the other bank. As part of Hebron’s approval of the credit line, it required the second bank its lien on Twilley’s personal residence so that Hebron could secure a first-position lien on this collateral.

Twilley signed a letter addressed to the second bank, directing them to accept the payoff of the loan, close the credit line account, and forward the release documents to Hebron.

The payoff was funded with a teller’s check issued by Hebron in the amount of $200,392, but the letter directing the bank to close the loan was never delivered and the credit line account remained open.

Prosecutors said Twilley admitted that he continued to make withdrawals of the available funds in the credit line, and by 2010 had withdrawn the full $200,000 available.

As a member of Hebron’s board of directors and as a condition of his ongoing loan relationship with Hebron -- which included the $350,000 line of credit and multiple commercial loans -- Twilley was required to provide Hebron with an annual personal net worth statement.

Twilley admitted that from 2010 through 2014 he provided Hebron with his personal financial statement, but failed to disclose the continued existence of the credit line with the second bank, which Hebron believed had been closed since 2006.

Twilley left his position as a member of Hebron’s board in 2015. By 2017, Twilley was having difficulty servicing his debts and Hebron attempted to restructure his loan payments.

As part of the negotiations, on March 17, 2017, Twilley again sent a personal financial statement to Hebron that failed to disclose the existence of his debt due on the credit line with the second bank, which then had a balance of approximately $176,000, thereby underreporting Twilley’s outstanding obligations.

In July 2018, Twilley declared bankruptcy and Hebron restructured all of Twilley’s personal and commercial debts. In November 2018, the collateral for the line of credit was sold and $163,082 of the proceeds was disbursed to the second bank as lien holder in first position, depriving Hebron of the proceeds of the sale.

As part of his plea agreement, Twilley will be required to pay restitution of $163,082, the full amount of the victim’s loss.

Twilley faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for making a false statement on a loan or credit application.

Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties and are determined by a federal District Court judge. A sentencing date for Twilley has yet to be scheduled.