Ben Burris Sentenced to Year in Prison for Bribing Jeremy Hutchinson

Reprinted from Arkansas Business, January 25, 2022:

Dr. Ben Burris, formerly of Fayetteville, was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in federal prison for bribing former state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson.

U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks also sentenced Burris, 50, of Florida, to a year of probation and fined the orthodontist $157,500, according to the Sentencing Minute Sheet filed in Burris’ case in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville.

In a deal with federal prosecutors in the Western District of Arkansas, Burris pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to dismiss 14 additional counts of honest services fraud that were alleged in a grand jury indictment. The maximum sentence for the crime of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud is 20 years.

Burris’ plea agreement acknowledged multiple bribes of an elected official. He acknowledged that he paid Hutchinson $157,500 between February 2014 and November 2016, and gave Hutchinson’s children free braces, with the intent of influencing Hutchinson’s official actions as a legislator.

Read the full story on Arkansas Business