FORT SMITH --A man who once ran for the Arkansas Legislature was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison Tuesday and ordered to pay nearly $2.3 million in restitution.
Brandon Woodrome, 29, of Fort Smith was sentenced on single counts of wire and bank fraud, to which he pleaded guilty in September. U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III ordered the prison sentences to run concurrently.
Woodrome remained free on a $5,000 signature bond until he is ordered to report to prison.
Sebastian County election records showed Woodrome ran for the Republican nomination in May 2008 for what was then House District 64. Stephanie Malone defeated him, 338-319.
Woodrome was charged in two schemes in which he received payments for submitting false invoices on two construction projects.
According to the criminal complaint to which he pleaded guilty, Woodrome owned a company called Behr LLC and obtained a loan in 2014 from the First Western Bank branch in Fort Smith to purchase property at South 31st Street and Phoenix Avenue about a mile west of the Fort Smith Regional Airport to build a medical clinic. Construction began in November 2014.
Court records show Woodrome was required to submit subcontractor invoices to the bank for payment for work completed. In November and December 2014, according to the records, he submitted false invoices for work that was never completed.
FBI Special Agent Gary Ebbing testified Tuesday the loss to First Western totaled more than $372,000.
In January 2015, Woodrome established a line of credit with Rioux Capital of Austin, Texas, and began building a shopping center near the airport at 5400 Phoenix Ave. for a company that owned the land, according to court records.
The records show Woodrome received payment from the landowner for work done on the project, submitted false invoices to Rioux Capital and received discounted payments from the invoices.
Ebbing testified that Woodrome submitted false invoices to Rioux that totaled $5.2 million. He repaid Rioux $3.4 million, leaving a loss of $1.8 million to Rioux.
NW News on 04/26/2017