BENTON — A former Southern Illinois prosecutor was sentenced in federal court Wednesday after he’d earlier pleaded guilty to falsifying bank records.

According to court records, Brandon Zanotti was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and 20 hours of community service. Zanotti’s law license was also suspended, according to the United States District Court Eastern District of Missouri.

Zanotti pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court in Benton to one felony count of aiding and abetting the making of a false bank entry. He admitted that in an April 6, 2022, meeting with a bank president and the buyer, they all agreed to fraudulently make it appear as if the loan to buy the properties in Williamson and Franklin counties was actually a refinancing. Documents were backdated to falsely indicate the buyer purchased the properties on Feb. 1, 2022, for the falsely inflated price of $545,152.

The documents also falsely indicated that the bank was refinancing 80% of that loan, with the buyers bringing 20% in cash to the sale. The real sales price for the properties was $436,122, and the buyers were not bringing any cash to the transaction. The bank’s loan to the buyers was approved by the bank’s loan committee based upon the false information.

Zanotti resigned as State’s Attorney later that year.