Kevin Lewis
Through The Years: The 2010s (40 Years of Arkansas Business)
See highlights from Arkansas Business from 2010-2019. read more >
Biggest Scoops (40 Years of Arkansas Business)
A scoop is a story so important that other news organizations are forced to follow. Here are some of our biggest. read more >
War Stories (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
This reporting staff has seen a lot of Arkansas business history. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
Trust But Verify (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
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 >
by Gwen Moritz -
New Pitch for Bank Charter Takes Flight
Randy Dennis’ firm, DD&F Consulting Group of Little Rock, has been involved in something that’s even more unusual than a bank acquisition in 2020: a brand-new bank charter. read more >
Farther Along (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
Oh, to have the power to subpoena people who could answer my burning questions and then force them to speak under oath! Some of the questions I still want answered date back a decade and more: read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
Grown-Up Money (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
Nothing I’ve learned from nearly 19 years as editor of Arkansas Business resonates more than this: Wealth and the appearance of wealth are two different things. And yet we fall for appearances over and over again. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
Pinnacle, Central Bank Combo Builds Assets To $200M
There are a lot of moving parts to the acquisition equation in the pending merger of Pinnacle Bank of Rogers and Central Bank of Little Rock. read more >
by George Waldon -
Creditors Force Sale of Walter Quinn’s Aspen Condo
A new spiral is taking shape in the Lex Golden-Allied Bank-Walter Quinn nexus. read more >
Blocking And Tackling (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
It's easy in hindsight to spot errors. I don’t know enough about auditing to know whether BKD’s auditors were incompetent. I do know from hard experience that errors often seem obvious in hindsight, and while they may be the result of lazy technique, some errors are virtually unavoidable. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
BKD Agrees to $4 Million Settlement with FDIC
Accounting firm BKD LLP agreed to pay the FDIC $4 million to settle a federal lawsuit tied to the 2010 failure of First Southern Bank of Batesville. read more >
BKD Settles With FDIC Over Kevin Lewis Fraud
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. last week settled its lawsuit against the accounting firm BKD LLP, just days before the trial was scheduled to begin in U.S. District Court in Little Rock. read more >
In Fraud By Kevin Lewis, Blame Is On Trial
In a civil trial scheduled to start next Monday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will blame regional accounting firm BKD LLC for failing to uncover the massive fraud that led to the 2010 failure of First Southern Bank of Batesville. read more >
by Mark Friedman -
Arkansas Greed (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
A typical organization — business, nonprofit, government, whatever — loses 5 percent of revenue to fraud in any given year. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
Acme Bankruptcy Proceedings Reveal Kevin Lewis Loss
A fractious relationship between Hildene Capital Management and Acme Holding Co. was evident in the April 2-3 courtroom interaction between Rex Terry of Fort Smith, Hildene’s local counsel, and Lex and Alex Golden of Little Rock. read more >
First Southern Bank Missed Red Flags With Kevin Lewis Fraud, BKD Says
The accounting firm BKD LLC is blaming the collapse of First Southern Bank in Batesville on the failure of bank officers and officials to detect former Little Rock attorney Kevin Lewis’ fraud. read more >
by Mark Friedman -
No Banking Future for Former First Southern CEO Woody Castleberry
Thanks to the fraud of convicted former Little Rock attorney Kevin Lewis, Woody Castleberry will never work in banking again. Castleberry told us last week that his settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was finally approved. He won’t have to pay a penalty, but he agreed never to be involved in banking again. read more >
FDIC Still Mopping Up Kevin Lewis’ Fraud Mess
More than two-and-a-half years after former Little Rock attorney Kevin Lewis was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for bank fraud, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. continues to clean up his mess. read more >
by Mark Friedman -
Acme Files Chapter 11 to Avoid Takeover
The parent company of Allied Bank of Mulberry was steered into bankruptcy to stave off a possible takeover by a fellow lender. The defensive move buys Acme Holding Co. more time to work out a solution with Chambers Bank of Danville and other creditors. read more >
by George Waldon -
Process Server Relates ‘Look of Terror’ on Face of Bond Scammer Kevin Lewis
Kevin Lewis wasn’t a high-profile guy until he started attracting lawsuits and the attention of federal investigators in connection with allegations of bank fraud involving multiple lenders. The day-to-day whereabouts of Lewis might be as enigmatic as the man, but Andy Myers can tell you where Lewis was on Feb. 3. That’s the day he caught up with Lewis at his parents’ home in Searcy. read more >
by George Waldon -