2 Men Accused of Bilking Ford Heights Church Out of $20,000 Loan

Two men accused of bilking their Ford Heights church out of a $20,000 federal small business loan granted for building repairs face felony charges after a Cook County Sheriff's Police investigation.

Allis Franklin, 66, and Horace Brownfield, 63, opened accounts at a Chicago Heights bank, representing themselves as officers of the True Light Missionary Baptist Church, according to the sheriff's police.

In August, Franklin assisted the church in applying for a Small Business Association loan to pay for repairs at the church building in Ford Heights.

In November, Franklin and Brownfield opened up their phony church bank accounts without church officials' knowledge, according to police. When the church was granted its $20,300 SBA loan, they deposited the loan into the secret accounts, police said.

The sheriff's investigators began looking into the loan in December after the church's pastor contacted the SBA to check on the status of the loan application and learned the money already had been deposited.

Franklin and Brownfield had withdrawn the money and spent it, police said.

The pair appeared in before a judge in the Markham courthouse Wednesday and bail for each was set at $200,000.