Texas Businessman Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison

26 Nov 2008 // SHERMAN, Texas — A Sherman businessman was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for submitting a false statement to a federally insured bank, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.

James W. Sandlin, 57, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard A. Schell in the Eastern District of Texas. He was sentenced to three years in prison for each of two counts of submitting a false statement to a federally insured financial institution. The terms will run concurrently.

The judge also ordered Sandlin to serve three years of supervised release following his prison term and imposed fines of $20,000, the release said.

Sandlin, indicted in November 2007, was convicted by a federal jury in June.

According to evidence at trial, on two occasions in 2006 Sandlin failed to disclose a $996,000 debt obligation in personal financial statements submitted to Independent Bank in Sherman. The evidence showed that he'd borrowed the money from a retired Sherman couple.

Sandlin is also under indictment along with retiring U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona on conspiracy, honest services mail and wire fraud, and extortion counts in the District of Arizona. The trial in that case is set to begin March 24 in Tucson, Ariz.