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.