OKLAHOMA CITY, OK—

STEVEN RUSSELL HART, 55,

of Madill, Oklahoma,

was sentenced last week to serve 33 months in prison for defrauding an Oklahoma City investor of more than $700,000, announced Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

During 2009, 2010, and 2011, Hart operated SRC Construction, Inc., which built homes in an Ardmore subdivision called “The Meadows.” He funded the construction through Texoma Land Development LLC, an Oklahoma City entity.

On October 15, 2013, a federal grand jury indicted Hart for sending

false draw requests

to Texoma Land Development. The requests specified specific construction work that SRC had supposedly performed or was in the process of performing. According to the indictment, Hart caused SRC to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for construction that never took place, including five houses that did not exist. The indictment alleged that he used a portion of these fraudulent proceeds for personal expenses.

Hart pled guilty on April 1, 2014. Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti sentenced Hart to serve 33 months in prison, ordered him to pay $728,906.75 in restitution, and entered a forfeiture money judgment in the same amount. After release from prison, Hart will be on supervised release for two years.

This sentence is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott E. Williams.