AMARILLO, Texas — Bart Reagor was sentenced to 14 years in prison Thursday afternoon. He was ordered to voluntarily surrender himself to the Federal Bureau of Prisons on May 9.
Reagor was found guilty in October of making false statements to a bank. Reagor, the former co-owner of Reagor Dykes Auto Group, was indicted in April 2021 for the false-statements charge and two counts of bank fraud. The jury found him guilty of the first but not guilty on the other two.
In court Thursday, the lawyers and the judge came to understand that federal guidelines would indicate a sentence between 11 and 14 years in prison. Previously, prosecutors pushed for a sentence between 342 to 405 months imprisonment, or 27 to 33.75 years.
The hearing started at 10:00 and went to 12:30 p.m. with an hour break and then resumed at 1:30. It included clips of a KLBK exclusive interview. During the sentencing, the judge concluded Reagor was a bully and verbally abusive to employees of the company — creating a toxic work environment. The judge believed employees committed crimes to please Reagor because he valued winning over everything else.
In February, Reagor agreed to forfeit $1.76 million related to the false statement conviction. Prosecutors argued that specific amount was what had been transferred from RDAG to his own account after a $10 million loan from IBC Bank in 2017.
The transfer was what led to the indictment and eventual conviction for false statements to a bank. Prosecutors argued this was because IBC Bank believed the loan would be used entirely for business and not for personal gain.
The $1.76 million amount includes $950,951.18 already seized in late 2018 from an account belonging to Reagor.
The judge ordered Reagor to pay back $9.378 million to IBC Bank. The court made a note that Reagor’s net worth was $31 million in December 2016. It was down to $3.4 million in April 2021.
