Jake C. Files (born March 27, 1972) is a Republican politician from Fort Smith,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

. Files represented portions of the

Arkansas River Valley The Arkansas River Valley (usually shortened to River Valley) is a region in Arkansas defined by the Arkansas River in the western part of the state. Generally defined as the area between the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, the River Valley is cha ...

in the

Arkansas House of Representatives The Arkansas State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the ...

from 1999 to 2003, and in the

Arkansas Senate The Arkansas State Senate is the upper branch of the Arkansas General Assembly. The Senate consists of 35 members, each representing a district with about 83,000 people. Service in the state legislature is part-time, and many state senators have ...

from 2011 to 2018. 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.

Background

A native of Norman,

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

, Files graduated

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

from

Arkansas State University Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osa ...

in Jonesboro. Previously, he had attended Ouachita Baptist University in

Arkadelphia Arkadelphia is a city in Clark County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,714. The city is the county seat of Clark County. It is situated at the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. Two universities, Henderso ...

. He is the owner of FFH Construction, a general construction firm. From 1997 to 2004, he was the president and superintendent of the Fort Smith Christian School. Prior to that, he was hired to help start operations of the Baldor Electric Company plant in

Ozark The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant porti ...

, Arkansas, as the accountant and materials manager. He and his wife, the former Michaela K. Mitchell (born 1977), have four children and are active members of Grand Avenue Baptist Church, a

Southern Baptist The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptists, Baptist denomination, and the Protestantism in the United States, largest Protestantism, Protestant and Christia ...

congregation in Fort Smith. The senator

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Little League Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Political life

From 1999 to 2003, he represented District 12 in the

. Files was first elected to the State Senate in 2010 in District 13. His district number was switched through

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral distri ...

from District 13 to District 8, effective January 2013, and his district boundaries changed to include most of the cities of Greenwood and Hackett. 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.

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, Files pleaded guilty to wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering in the

United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas The United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas (in case citations, W.D. Ark.) is a federal court in the Eighth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appeale ...

in January 2018. He resigned his senate seat in February.

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. 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Files, Jake 1972 births Living people 21st-century American criminals American fraudsters American money launderers Arkansas politicians convicted of crimes Ouachita Baptist University alumni Arkansas State University alumni Republican Party members of the Arkansas House of Representatives Republican Party Arkansas state senators Tea Party movement activists People from Norman, Oklahoma Politicians from Fort Smith, Arkansas Businesspeople from Arkansas American accountants American educators Baptists from Arkansas 21st-century American politicians Baptists from Oklahoma