Dennis Smiley Jr.

Misplaced trust is a common theme in the fraud cases I’ve observed over the past two decades, as is the failure to make simple, routine checks. read more >

While the sentence was up to Judge Holmes, defense lawyer W.H. Taylor of Fayetteville negotiated a deal in which Dennis Smiley Jr. pleaded guilty to only a single count of bank fraud — but he had to accept responsibility and restitution for more than 20 bank victims and their combined losses of nearly $5 million. read more >

Dennis Smiley is almost a caricature. How could any intelligent, well-educated person — a banker, no less — mistake debt for wealth? How could he have overspent more than the vast majority of Americans, even well-paid ones, will earn in a lifetime of honest work? read more >

H. Dennis Smiley Jr., the former president of Arvest Bank’s Benton County market, expects to go to federal prison after he is sentenced Thursday for bank fraud. read more >

There isn’t usually a lot of levity during court hearings, especially when a defendant is there to plead guilty to something such as felony bank fraud, like Dennis Smiley Jr. did on Aug. 25. read more >

Henry Dennis Smiley Jr. — the Jr. matters in this case — pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of bank fraud. But the plea agreement identifies 23 banks as his victims, and that doesn’t include Arvest Bank, which had trusted him to be president of its Benton County market. read more >

Waiving his right to be indicted by a federal grand jury and pleading guilty has made Dennis Smiley Jr.’s prosecution faster and cheaper for all concerned, but it also means that there are a lot of things we’ll probably never know about his crimes. read more >

H. Dennis Smiley Jr., the former president of Arvest Bank's Benton County market, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to defrauding 20 banks out of more than $4 million. read more >

While Dennis Smiley Jr. awaits indictment or a plea deal on criminal charges, civil litigation continues in an effort to recoup losses from his financial wheeling and dealing. read more >

Whispers admitted it was going out on a limb by predicting in April that a plea deal for Arvest Bank’s former Benton County market president Dennis Smiley Jr. was likely within a couple of weeks. read more >

A plea deal for Dennis Smiley Jr., former Benton County market president for Arvest Bank, is nigh. read more >