(Shreveport) A mortgage-firm owner could face up to 30 years behind bars after pleading guilty to cheating a Sabine Parish bank out of $2.9 million.

Federal prosecutors said 56-year-old William Everett Nichols of Alexandria has admitted to perpetrating the fraud against Sabine State Bank while running First Fidelity Mortgage Inc.

For the scheme, Nichols submitted collateral notes bearing forged signatures of borrowers and notaries public so the bank would give him money to loan, according to court records. But instead of distributing the funds, Nichols pocketed them, documents indicate.

Nichols could also be fined up to one million dollars and ordered to pay restitution when he's sentenced in early February 2010.