MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A De Pere businessman charged with defrauding the state’s economic development agency and other investors out of more than $9 million plans to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud.

The deal is part of a plea agreement Ronald H. Van Den Heuvel entered into with federal prosecutors in Green Bay, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Wednesday. The case drew criticism from Democrats over the management of the state’s economic development agency because it wrote off a $1.1 million loan to Van Den Heuvel.

The Van Den Heuvel loan was one of several botched deals by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. that prompted a review of agency practices and a temporary suspension of the agency’s loan program.

Van Den Heuvel is expected to plead guilty Friday. Prosecutors plan to recommend that he be sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison. That would be concurrent with a three-year prison sentence he received in January for defrauding the Horicon Bank out of more than $700,000 starting in 2008.

The remaining 13 counts against Van Den Heuvel would be dismissed under the plea agreement.