Hot Springs man sentenced to 4-plus years for money laundering, wire fraud
Officials said 57-year-old John Christopher Bates of Hot Springs waived indictment and pleaded guilty to the two charges. He was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $252,344 in restitution on March 12.
Arkansas man convicted for Oklahoma bank robbery
Investigators said the charges arose from two different schemes: In the first, Bates was involved in false benefit applications to the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services for pandemic unemployment assistance, and the second, he filed fraudulent applications for an Economic Disaster Loan of over $1 million.
Officials said the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General investigated the case.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Husband witnesses wife's killer be executed 43 years after her death: ‘I made a promise'
A grieving husband witnessed the Tuesday execution of the man who abducted and killed his wife from a Florida insurance office over four decades ago — stating he 'made a promise' to see her tragic case through. Randy White, 70, lost his wife, Janet Renee White, after she was abducted, raped, and stabbed to death by Kayle Bates in 1982 — just minutes after he last said goodbye to her, USA Today reported. 3 Randy White, 70, lost his wife, Janet Renee White, after she was abducted by Kayle Bates in 1982. The attack happened just minutes after he last said goodbye to her. Randy White Advertisement Bates, 67, died by lethal injection at 6:17 p.m. Tuesday at Florida State Prison under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. It was the state's 10th death sentence carried out in 2025. The execution gave the widower long-awaited relief that he had finally reached the end of a nearly 43-year battle for justice in his wife's killing. 'I made a promise to her right after it happened that I would be there for every trial, every hearing, every appeal, and that as long as I was living, I would seek justice for her,' White told the outlet after the execution. Advertisement He was only 27 when he lost his wife, who was the youngest of five siblings and always dreamed of having kids and her own business, the outlet reported. 'I feel a relief that I can mentally let Renee know that justice has finally been served for her, and that's mentally what I need. It's always been for her,' he said. 3 When police arrived after the abduction, they found Bates covered in blood with her wedding ring in his pocket. AP Bates was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, and attempted sexual battery in the June 14, 1982 killing of Janet White in Bay County in the Florida Panhandle. Advertisement Bates abducted White from the State Farm insurance office where she worked, took her into the woods behind the building, attempted to rape her, stabbed her to death, and tore a diamond ring from one of her fingers, according to court documents. 'Bates attacked her, but Renee fought back,' according to court records obtained by the outlet. 'Despite her best efforts, Bates overpowered Renee and forced her into the woods behind the office.' Within 15 minutes of saying goodbye to Renee, he got a call from the authorities about an emergency at her office. 'He looked at me and said, 'Mr. White, I don't know any easy way to say this … but your wife's been murdered,'' White remembered. 'I completely lost it.' Advertisement When police arrived, they found Bates covered in blood with her wedding ring in his pocket, documents showed. Attorneys for Bates had filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court, as well as a federal lawsuit claiming DeSantis' process for signing death warrants was discriminatory. 3 Randy White was only 27 when he lost his wife, who was the youngest of five siblings and always dreamed of having kids and her own business. Family Handout Veterans groups had also asked the Florida Gov to spare Bates from the death penalty because of his six-year military service in the National Guard, the outlet reported. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each. Bates declined to give last words at his execution and turned down his last meal, the outlet said. Florida executions are carried out using a three-drug lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections. Advertisement White described the execution as 'straightforward and quick.' With Post wires.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Florida man executed for 1982 abduction, murder of Panhandle woman
STARKE — A man convicted of abducting a woman from a Florida Panhandle insurance office and killing her received a lethal injection Tuesday evening in the state's 10th execution this year. Kayle Bates, 67, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The execution extended Florida's record for total executions in a single year, and two more are planned within the next month. Bates was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted sexual battery in the June 14, 1982, killing of Janet White in Bay County. The woman's husband, Randy White, was one of the witnesses to Tuesday's execution. At the scheduled 6 p.m. execution time, the curtain to the death chamber promptly went up. Bates was already strapped to a gurney with his left arm extended and the IV line for the drugs already in place. When asked if he wished to make a last statement, Bates replied, 'No.' The execution began at 6:01 pm. Bates began breathing more rapidly about a minute after the drugs began flowing, and then he stopped after about another minute. At 6:05 p.m., the warden touched Bates' face, shook his shoulders and shouted his name with no response. Several minutes later, he was declared dead. Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each. With Tuesday's execution, a total of 29 men had died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and at least nine other people were scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025. According to court documents, Bates abducted White from the insurance office where she worked, took her into some woods behind the building, attempted to rape her, fatally stabbed her and tore a diamond ring from one of her fingers. Attorneys for Bates had filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a federal lawsuit claiming DeSantis' process for signing death warrants was discriminatory. The lawsuit was recently dismissed by a judge, who found problems with the lawsuit's statistical analysis. The Florida Supreme Court recently denied Bates' pending claims, including arguments that evidence of organic brain damage had been inadequately considered during his second penalty phase. The court ruled Bates has had three decades to raise these claims. And the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Bates' last appeal Tuesday. The Department of Corrections said Bates awoke at 5:15 a.m. Tuesday and had three visitors: his daughter, his sister and his brother-in-law. He declined a last meal and did not meet with a spiritual adviser, department spokesperson Ted Veerman said. Two more executions are planned in Florida in coming weeks. Curtis Windom, 59, is set to become the 11th person executed in Florida on Aug. 28. He was convicted of killing three people in the Orlando area in 1992. David Pittman, 63, would be the 12th person executed in Florida if his death sentence is carried out as scheduled Sept. 17. He was found guilty of fatally stabbing his estranged wife's sister and parents at their Polk County home before setting it on fire in 1990. Florida executions are carried out using a three-drug lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections. By DAVID FISCHER, Associated Press
The Hill
2 days ago
- The Hill
IRS wrongfully fired thousands, watchdog finds
The terminated employees were not given proper notice, nor was their performance taken into account when getting rid of them, the office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) concluded in a report released. 'Internal procedures were not followed when sending the termination notices. Policies and procedures require the IRS to give probationary employees a 30-day notice and consider their performance prior to terminating them,' TIGTA found. In February, the IRS fired 6,700 employees designated as probationary, meaning they were working for the agency on a trial basis prior to becoming full staff members. The hires were part of a large-scale overhaul of the agency initiated by Democrats in 2022 as part of their Inflation Reduction Act. That legislation awarded the agency an initial $80 billion funding boost to be spent over the subsequent decade. More than half of the initial money — $45 billion — was earmarked for extra tax enforcement, specifically increased audits for wealthy Americans. The IRS even set up a new division to go after complex partnerships, or nested legal entities that can shelter funds that are owed to the government. The Hill's Tobias Burns has more here.
