RDAG: Shane Smith, Steven Reinhart sentencing date rescheduled

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - The former Reagor-Dykes CFO and the RDAG Legal Compliance Director, both witnesses in the trial for Bart Reagor, have new sentencing dates now set for January.

According to court documents, former RDAG CFO Shane Smith and Legal Compliance Director Steven Reinhart are now scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on January 20, 2022, at 1:30 p.m. in the U.S. Courthouse in Amarillo. Smith and Reinhart were originally scheduled for sentencing on December 21.

Central evidence in the October trial of Bart Reagor included testimony from Smith and Reinhart. Smith, who pleaded guilty in 2019 to one count of wire fraud, told the court he led the floor plan fraud and check kiting scheme and recruited others but did not tell Reagor or Rick Dykes.

Reagor’s defense team has continually argued Smith was “rotten” and “Judas” for betraying Reagor, who was found guilty in October on a charge of false statement to the International Bank of Commerce regarding a $10 million loan. In testimony, prosecutors confronted the former CFO over an email from Reagor to Smith and Rick Dykes drafted six weeks before closing on the loan titled “handling capital.” Reagor discussed how the IBC loan would be used and that it was “not anyone’s business,” including “no bankers or anyone else.”

Reagor has since called for acquittal from the charge claiming prosecutors could not adequately define or prove Reagor lied to the IBC about his intentions for the loan.

The defense maintains the argument that nearly $2 million from the loan moved to personal accounts was reimbursement “for money they had personally invested.” In trial, prosecutors presented personal financial statements showing Reagor owed RDAG more than $5 million.

In Monday’s acquittal motion, the defense stated Shane Smith never told Reagor this use of the money was impermissible, and IBC only identified the distributions a year later because of the floor plan fraud they say did not involve Reagor, but preceded the financial collapse of Reagor-Dykes Auto Group.

RDAG Legal Compliance Director Steven Reinhart testified in trial on the loan and Reagor’s distributions of it, telling the jury this was a working capital loan and “I would have told him that you can’t move the proceeds of that loan into personal or private accounts.”

IBC argued the loan agreement expressly prohibited Reagor and others from diverting loan proceeds to their personal bank accounts, and IBC would not have approved the loan if Reagor or anyone else had disclosed to IBC that some of the loan proceeds would be diverted to Reagor’s personal bank accounts.

However, Reagor’s defense team maintains that the definition of “working capital” has not been properly defined by prosecutors’ evidence, witnesses, or the IBC; using this argument as the basis to oppose the order for Reagor to forfeit the disputed $1.7 million, ordered by the court in November.

A hearing on that forfeiture ordered last week by Judge Kacsmaryk is scheduled for February 9, 2022, at 10 a.m. Prosecutors are expected to respond on or before December 31, 2021.

Smith and Reinhart are now scheduled for sentencing on January 20, 2022. Smith faces the possibility of up to 20 years in prison, probation and pay a restitution of more than $50 million for the wire fraud charge. Reinhart was the last RDAG employee to be indicted and pleaded guilty to misrepresentation of a felony, he faces up to three years in federal prison, up to a year of supervised release, and a fine not to exceed $250,000. He could be ordered to pay restitution as well.

Reagor faces up to 30 years in federal prison for false statement to a bank. His sentencing is set for February 24, 2022, in Amarillo.

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