Former Arkansas senator gets 18 months in prison in fraud case

By Dave Hughes

Former state senator Jake Files was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison and was ordered to pay more than $83,000 in restitution on wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering charges.

Files pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud and money laundering for misdirecting nearly $27,000 in state General Improvement Fund money from a baseball-softball complex project he was involved in building for Fort Smith and using the money for personal purposes.