Former Insurance Company President Sentenced for Wire Fraud

A Mount Ida, Ark., man has been sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering and wire fraud.

Federal prosecutors say 58-year-old Steven Alan Standridge was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Hot Springs.

Standridge had pleaded guilty in July to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering as part of a plea agreement in which 33 other counts were dismissed by federal prosecutors in both the eastern and western districts of Arkansas.

Prosecutors say Standridge was president of an insurance company and submitted false documents to obtain a loan that he said would be used to purchase other insurance agencies – but instead used the $2.7 million he received for other purposes.

Prosecutors say the FBI and the IRS assisted in the investigation.