He pleaded guilty in 2018 to wire fraud,bank fraud and money laundering relating to misuse of the state's surplus money and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
From 1999 to 2003,he represented District 12 in the Arkansas House of Representatives. Files was first elected to the State Senate in 2010 in District 13.[2] His district number was switched through redistricting from District 13 to District 8,effective January 2013. His district boundaries changed to include most of the cities of Greenwood and Hackett.[1] He served on Senate committees for Revenue &Taxation,Transportation,Technology,Legislative Affairs,Joint Budget,and Senate Efficiency. He was also a member of the Joint (House and Senate) Legislative Committee on Auditing. He was chairman of the Revenue and Taxation Committee.[citation needed]
Fraud scandal
In early 2017,Files was accused of submitting false bids for the River Valley Sports Complex,a planned park of softball fields at Chaffee Crossing in Fort Smith. Though initially denying the charges,[3] Files pleaded guilty to wire fraud,bank fraud and money laundering in the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas in January 2018.[4] He resigned his senate seat in February.[5]
Plea
The plea agreement says Files and Lee Webb,a member of the Sebastian County Election Commission,convinced the City of Fort Smith to appropriate $1.6 million for the project in 2014. Files then created three fictitious companies to bid for the project. He later proposed steering $150,000 of public funds from the state's General Improvement Fund (GIF) to the project.[6] Files had control over the funds,and was chairman of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee. He pleaded guilty,and was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $83,900 in restitution.[4][5]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
