{"id":28726,"date":"2017-01-04T20:49:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T04:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=28726"},"modified":"2017-01-04T20:49:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T04:49:15","slug":"arkansas-state-rep-pleads-guilty-to-accepting-bribes-for-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=28726","title":{"rendered":"Arkansas State Rep. Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes for Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><script height=\"433px\" width=\"770px\" src=\"http:\/\/player.ooyala.com\/iframe.js#ec=h4am9xODE6xu297MtRmugDOubESY5Za4&#038;pbid=e32b1952e526440e8cfb2c72937dad7e\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">An Arkansas state representative <\/span>plead<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"> guilty Wednesday to conspiring to allowing<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0$600,000 in state government funds to two non-profit entities in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in kickback payments, federal officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Micah Neal, 42, of Springdale, Arkansas, will be sentenced at a later date for one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">As part of his guilty plea, Neal admitted that, between January 2013 and January 2015, while serving in the Arkansas House of Representatives, he conspired with an Arkansas state senator to use their official positions to give government money known as General Improvement Funds (GIF) to a pair of non-profit entities in exchange for bribes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Specifically, Neal and the senator authorized and directed the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District, which was responsible for disbursing the GIF, to award a total of $600,000 in GIF money to the two non-profit entities. \u00a0Of the $600,000, Neal personally authorized and directed a total of $175,000 to the entities. \u00a0In return for his official actions, Neal received approximately $38,000 in bribes from officials at those non-profit entities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">According to the Washington Post, Neal&#8217;s lawyer admits what he did was wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cHe\u2019s acknowledging what he did was wrong,\u201d lawyer Shane Wilkinson of Bentonville said. \u201cI suspect that as these things unfold that Micah will be perceived on the low end of the totem pole of culpability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">According to prosecutors, Neal conspired with others, including \u201cSenator A\u201d \u2014 whom they described as a House member from 2007-2012, a senator since 2013 and the sponsor of a 2013 bill granting eight development districts up to $2 million each in state funds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Neal, whose family owns a Springdale restaurant, won the Republican Party\u2019s nomination for Washington County judge last year but dropped his bid abruptly four months later. Neal cited business- and family-related reasons for ending his campaign, according to the Washington Post.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Arkansas state representative plead guilty Wednesday to conspiring to allowing\u00a0$600,000 in state government funds to two non-profit entities in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in kickback payments, federal officials&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Arkansas State Rep. 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