Former banker C.H. Butcher Jr., jailed for fraud, dies in Georgia

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - C.H. Butcher Junior, who was jailed for fraud after his Knoxville, Tennessee-based banking empire collapsed in the 1980s, died Tuesday at a Georgia hospital. He was 62. <br> <br> Hospital spokeswoman Kim Evans said Butcher died at North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell, Georgia, Tuesday afternoon. <br> <br> The cause of death was not immediately known. Evans said his family asked that no other details be released. <br> <br> Two weeks ago, Butcher attended the annual coon supper in Covington, a political gathering hosted by House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, and appeared in good health. <br> <br> Butcher, former chairman of Southern Industrial Bank Corporation, and his brother, Jake, former chairman of United American Bank, together operated 22 banks in Tennessee and Kentucky, once valued at three billion dollars. <br> <br> The banks collapsed in 1983 under the weight of unsecured loans, paper corporations loaded with debt, and a massive shell game in which loans were shuffled from one bank to another ahead of the bank examiners. <br> <br> Butcher pleaded guilty in 1987 to bank, bankruptcy and tax fraud. He served six years of a 20-year sentence, was paroled in 1993 and placed on probation in 1998. His probation was set to end next year.