Former Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined $20,000, according to State Attorney General Drew Edmondson.
Oklahoma County District Judge Susan Caswell sentenced Mr. Fisher yesterday following his conviction earlier this month on charges of embezzlement and perjury.
The jury deliberated less than two hours after hearing two days of testimony concerning Mr. Fisher's deposit of a $1,000 campaign contribution into his personal bank account and his failure to report receiving the money on his state campaign reports.
“Judges and juries look negatively upon those who misuse and abuse their positions in government,” Mr. Edmondson said. “This type of sentencing is evidence of the seriousness of Mr. Fisher's crimes.”
The former commissioner still faces several other charges, including one count of accepting a bribe, filing a false tax return and failure to pay over money to the state.
He also faces charges in connection with his purported charitable foundation that include failure to register as a nonexempt charitable organization and failure to report contributions to a nonexempt charitable organization.
Mr. Fisher is scheduled for trial on the tax evasion case on Sept. 11, also before Judge Caswell.
The commissioner resigned his post in 2004 shortly before he was to face a trial by the State Senate on articles of impeachment approved by the House that accused him of incompetence, neglect of duty and corruption.
Mr. Fisher was first elected to the insurance post in 1998 and won re-election four years later.
At the National Association of Insurance Commissioners meetings he prided himself as being one of the few top state regulators who had spent most of his adult life as an insurance agent.
In that capacity he vigorously fought efforts to impose more stringent suitability requirements for agents regarding the sale of life products, asserting it would just create a “feeding frenzy” for the plaintiffs' bar.
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