• Email this story
• Print this story
• Comment on this story

BENTONVILLE - A Rogers tax attorney serving time in federal prison for stealing his clients' money was sentenced to eight years in state prison Monday for defrauding a local bank, said Deputy Prosecutor Drew Ledbetter.

Eric Dean Archer, 37, pleaded guilty in 2004 before Circuit Judge Tom Keith to defrauding Arvest Bank. He was switched money between bank accounts, overdrawing the accounts by thousands of dollars, Ledbetter said.

Keith originally agreed to divert Archer's sentence if he repaid the bank about $28,000. Archer paid about $20,000, but Keith revoked his diversion last year after Archer was accused of stealing money from clients. Archer is serving two years in federal prison for that crime.

Keith sentenced Archer to eight years in state prison and a seven-year suspended sentence. The new sentence runs concurrently with the federal sentence, Ledbetter said. Archer must serve at least one year and four months of his state sentence.

After release, Archer must resume repaying the bank, Ledbetter said. Archer must pay another $92,972 in victim restitution as part of his federal sentence and $57,131 with 10 percent interest to Carol Fountain and her son, Charles, who were former clients.

The Fountains filed a civil suit last year saying they gave Archer $44,300 to cover 2005 taxes, but Archer didn't turn it over to the Internal Revenue Service. The court handed down its judgment against Archer in January, according to the circuit clerk's office.