Kevin Harold Lewis (left) leaves the federal courthouse in Little Rock with attorney Tim Dudley after pleading guilty. ( Staton Breidenthal

Kevin Harold Lewis was sentence in federal court Friday to 10 years in prison and is expected to pay about $39 million in restitution for what a U.S. attorney called “the largest fraud in the history of Arkansas."

Lewis pleaded guilty in August, admitting that he stole between $20 million and $50 million through a Ponzi scheme that he operated from at least 1997 until October 2010, when a routine Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. audit led to a federal investigation.

The fraud scheme, which prosecutors said amounted to about $47 million, led to the collapse of First Southern Bank, a federally insured bank in Batesville. It also victimized 15-20 other banks, U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer has said.

Lewis lived in a home valued at more than $1 million, drove expensive vehicles and traveled extensively, Thyer has said.

The restitution agreement is still being worked out since some restitution has been paid. In August, Thyer noted that his office has seized about $1.5 million of Lewis’ assets, including rental properties, commercial properties, cash and a vehicle, to apply to the restitution. Lewis voluntarily surrendered other assets to victims in the case, Thyer said. The amount of assets claim has increased since then, but the total is unclear.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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