Brent Swadley, owner of the Oklahoima-based Swadley’s Bar-B-Q restaurant chain, was found guilty Thursday by a jury in an Oklahoma City courtroom of committing criminal fraud involving millions of dollars of state taxpayer money.
Swadley was accused of creating fake invoices and overbilling the Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department at state parks. The overbilling, which came to light several years ago, was estimated to be as high as $3.1 million.
Swadley’s launched its first restaurant along Route 66 in nearby Bethany, Oklahoma, and operates another location along Route 66 in El Reno and near the Mother Road in Oklahoma City.
Before Swadley was led away to the county jail in handcuffs, the jury recommended 10 years in prison and $75,000 in fines against Swadley.
A restitution hearing also is set for July, where prosecutors expect an order of $3.2 million.
In a statement to News9 in Oklahoma City, the Swadley family said they disagreed with the verdict and will appeal.
“This case centered around invoice and accounting issues — not an intent to steal from or defraud the State of Oklahoma. The work was performed, the products and services existed, and there was never a criminal scheme.”
The Swadleys said their restaurants would continue to operate during the appeals process.
Two other Swadley’s associates pleaded guilty to related charges.
OKC Fox got a reaction from Attorney General Gentner Drummond:
“The arrogance he exhibited the last several years is just frustrating.,” Drummond said. “And I think justice was served. I think a six-count indictment and a 10-year sentence is appropriate for the fraud and graft that he perpetrated on the state of Oklahoma.”
FOX 25 asked Drummond, “The defense argued that Jerry Winchester, former executive director of the tourism department, never said no to an invoice. There were lots of invoices that the state signed off on, and even without supporting documents for a good chunk there. Is there anything the state should have done differently?”
Drummond responded, “There’s a lesson to be learned here. One, we have to have a process in place for the state. It’s kind of like Medicaid fraud. The president has said, hey, we’ve got a lot of fraudsters out there. Our system is designed to trust. And we are guilty of trusting Mr. Swadley, an individual who is under contract to perform a service for the state of Oklahoma. That’s our sin. We trusted a fraudster. Now, of all the contractors that the state of Oklahoma has, maybe let’s say there are 5,000 contractors, 4,999 are honest, hardworking, God-fearing Oklahomans. But every once in a while you get a fraudster. And how you prevent that is you have a process in place that you don’t just take at face value the invoice. You have to go out and audit to the sub-vendor and say, may I please have a copy of the original invoice? And had we done that along the way with Mr. Swadley, we would have caught him back in 2019 and not let him have a three-year run. Because what happens, typically with any embezzler or fraudster, they try a little bit first, didn’t catch it, go a little bit bigger. I like that. And then they get greedy. And that’s what happened with Mr. Swadley. Marking up or falsifying an invoice 30% is a hard thing to catch. Falsifying an invoice 300% is much easier. And that’s what he did. And that’s how he got caught.”
(Image of the Swadley’s Bar-B-Q logo)