corruptionchronicle:

  Many Oklahoma school districts were found to be collecting far more money in property tax than their operations required. That ‘slush fund’ was secretly invested in money markets. As for where that interest income was finally accrued, was even more secret.

  Ironically, it was the IRS which blew the lid on this scheme, by insisting that taxes needed to be paid on this interest income. 

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Gov. David Walters stands before District Judge John Amick in Oklahoma County District Court as he pleads guilty to one misdemeanor count of violating state campaign finance laws. The court room was closed to the public Harry Holloway, of the Oklahoma Historical Society said;

  Then in 1990 a scandal emerged from the gubernatorial campaign of winner and Democrat David Walters. Walters won, but the campaign was accompanied by a barrage of press reports that he had raised and spent more money that any previous candidate. Investigations by the state attorney general and Oklahoma County district attorney led to charges of campaign violations. Walters finally pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges. Critics attacked the outcome as letting him escape too easily from more serious charges. Still, the publicity probably moderated some of the worst excesses of campaign finance. And in this case reform had occurred with little federal intervention, in itself a significant gain.

NBC’s “The Tonight Show” host Jay Leno showed the headline to his national television audience and quipped: “It’s no secret now. ” The negotiations concluded Oct. 21 with Walters and his wife, Rhonda, being whisked to the Oklahoma County Courthouse where in a late-night rather secretive court session the state’s chief executive stood before a judge and coolly uttered the word - “Guilty” - to a misdemeanor campaign violation. The governor’s attorney, R. Thomas Seymour of Tulsa, who elbowed reporters out of the governor’s way, described the seventh-floor courthouse hallway as a scene “straight out of the movies. ” A noisy throng of journalists and television cameramen as well as curious onlookers, had crowded into the courthouse that night to see history unfold.

  One of the more prominent politicians convicted in the last 25 years of the state’s history was former Gov. David Walters. Walters pleaded guilty in 1993 to a misdemeanor charge of violating a state campaign law in a plea agreement that dismissed eight felony charges of conspiracy and perjury. The conviction also led to his decision not to run for governor again. Walters, a Democrat, became president of Walters Power International, a company that provides huge electricity-generating mobile plants sometimes located in remote regions.  

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  There were several claims of fraud and shiftiness for years. But none could be proven. Oldtimers still say that the 1984 mayoral race was wrought with corruption by the many broken machines that led to long lines at the polls, but only in the heavily Republican precincts!

  Then, in 1987, The Tulsa World said;

1987 

 Tulsa County Election Board Secretary Harmon Moore Jr. resigned amid allegations of embezzlement; he later was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzling public funds.

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  In 1974 A federal grand jury indicted Winters, for, among other things, of using his position to extort campaign money from banks. Winters was acquitted of four counts during a well publicized trial, and other counts later were dropped. A few weeks after that, he was re-elected. 

  Winters served five terms and was trying for a sixth when his 1986 campaign was doomed by allegations that a Tulsa bank may have written off millions in loans to him.

  In 1986, many Oklahoma banks were on the brink of default from a crash in the oil markets, worldwide. Yet State Treasure Winters, decided to deposit a massive amount of state funds into a non-interest bearing account in Liberty National Bank of Oklahoma.

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  When a high official gets involved in wrongdoing, it’s usually the cover up that gets him in big trouble.

 The Democrats were ‘circling the wagons’ when Finis Smith was convicted. They knew it could lead to election losses. When several Democrats wrote to the judge in the Finis Smith trial, they begged for leniency for Smith. That revelation jeopardized several Democrat elected officials.

  Well, evidently some operatives thought it would be good strategy to make the Republicans look like their prosecutions were politically motivated. So another Republican federal prosecutor was targeted for a Democrat dirty trick. A letter was forged with the signature of Federal Prosecutor, Layn Phillips. The Federal investigation traced the source of the letter to a typewriter in Democrat mayor Terry Young’s office. Everyone denied involvement and nothing was ever proven.

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 Senate President, Finis Smith, of West Tulsa, was caught with an unreported foreign bank account which he’s not reported on his taxes. He and his wife both were sentenced to prison. They owned a Tag Agency. He was disbarred from his law practice.

  The Tulsa World said;
1985

  Former Oklahoma Senate  president pro-tem Finis Smith, along with his wife Doris,  were convicted by a federal court jury here on felony counts  of mail and tax fraud, conspiracy and failure to disclose foreign bank accounts. Finis and Doris Smith, each got six years, and were sent to a federal prison in Texas.

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Bill Price prosecuted most of the County Commissioners

  When Republican President, Ronald Reagan started appointing conservative federal prosecutors and judges, The Democrats who ran Oklahoma began to sweat. Eventually, the IRS notified the Justice Department about fake billing invoices to county commissioners. Bill Price was one such federal prosecutor. After he sent scores of county commissioners to jail, he ran for governor. Sadly he lost, due to more corruption in David Walter’s campaign funding.
   Harry Holloway, of the Oklahoma Historical Society said;

 In 1980 a huge scandal erupted stemming from the conviction of some 220 county commissioners and suppliers. Their convictions rose from involvement in a scheme of kickbacks paid on orders for county road-building supplies such as timber and gravel. The scandal reached all across the state in roughly sixty counties large and small, urban and rural. It had been going on for as long as anyone could remember. Again, federal officials rooted out the corruption.

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  The Oklahoma Speaker, Dan Draper, was convicted in 1983 for election tampering. He was trying to help his father win a seat in the Oklahoma legislature.

  The Tulsa World reported;

1983
  Then-House Speaker Dan Draper’s troubles began in 1983.  He and House Majority Floor Leader Joe Fitzgibbon initially  were convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy charges for  allegedly fixing absentee ballots to help Draper’s father  in an unsuccessful race for a House seat. Draper and Fitzgibbon  later won new trials (in 1985), but a federal judge dismissed  the charges at the behest of U.S. Attorney Roger Hilfiger.  Muskogee Democrat Jim Barker became the new speaker thanks  to Draper’s troubles.

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  John Rogers was elected examiner and inspector in 1958 and won re-election four times until his defeat by Tom Daxon in 1978, the year the job was changed to that of auditor and inspector.

  He had narrowly been re-elected four years earlier after a legislative committee and a federal grand jury received evidence that his employees had received raises based on their campaign contributions for Gov. David Hall during Hall’s successful 1970 campaign.

  Rogers and his son, then-Secretary of State John Rogers Jr., were called before the grand jury investigating Gov. Hall just weeks before the 1974 election. Both refused to answer questions and invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

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David Hall

After the terrible governorships of the late 20s & early 30’s, it wasn’t  until the 1960s that major scandals again surfaced, and then they did so with a vengeance. Three justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court were removed from office by impeachment or resignation arising from IRS investigations of reports that justices were taking kickbacks for favorable decisions. A powerful former speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, who had been a dominant figure in state government, was convicted and sent to jail as a result of IRS investigations arising from charges that he failed to report income received in return for political favors. 

Then in 1975 a former governor, David Hall, was convicted, shortly after leaving office, of misusing his powers of office by trying to direct a state retirement fund to help a friend with a loan. Again, federal officials were the chief agents in cleaning up the corruption.