Coralville Woman Pleads Guilty to Bankruptcy Fraud

A Coralville woman who initiated a bankruptcy case in order to defraud a nursing home out of more than $70,000 pled guilty on April 22, 2026, in federal court in Cedar Rapids. Donita Rose Eckrich, age 64, from Coralville, Iowa, was convicted of one count of bankruptcy fraud.

In a plea agreement, Eckrich admitted that, in 2021 and 2022, a former nursing home resident was suffering from severe cognitive impairments and unable to manage the resident's financial affairs. The resident owed a nursing home over $150,000 for care since 2019. The resident had assets, including valuable real estate in Holy Cross, Iowa, and an annuity check from an insurer in the amount of nearly $75,000.

Eckrich devised a scheme to defraud the nursing home by fraudulently concealing and transferring the nursing home resident's assets and otherwise violating the bankruptcy laws of the United States. For example, Eckrich caused an attorney to file a bankruptcy case in the former nursing home resident's name, but hid the annuity check from the nursing home and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Iowa. Once the bankruptcy court discharged the former nursing home resident's debt to the nursing home, Eckrich cashed the insurance company's check and made five cash withdrawals of $15,000 each in order to conceal the location of the annuity money.

Eckrich and others at her request also created a "quit claim deed" in which the former nursing home resident purported to convey real estate in Holy Cross to Eckrich for "One Dollar(s) and other valuable consideration." Eckrich obtained the Holy Cross property free and clear of any debt to the nursing home and without using any of the annuity moneys to pay the debt owed to the nursing home.

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Eckrich remains free on bond previously set. Eckrich faces a possible maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and was investigated by the Dubuque County Sheriff's Office, the Coralville Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.plLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..

The case file number is 25-CR-94.

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