The Nation - News from April 22, 1985

Jake Butcher, who ran unsuccessfully for governor of Tennessee twice and organized the 1982 World’s Fair, will plead guilty today to stealing more than $40 million from his own banks, the Tennessean newspaper reported. Butcher, 48, who made a plea-bargain agreement with the prosecution, will admit to 22 counts of bank fraud and income tax evasion in U.S. District Court in Knoxville and will be guaranteed a sentence of not more than 20 years in prison, which would make him eligible for parole in four to six years, the newspaper said. Butcher, a personal friend of Jimmy Carter and Walter F. Mondale, was forced into involuntary bankruptcy after 11 Tennessee banks owned by or connected to Butcher and his brother, C.H., 47, collapsed in 1983.