The former bond broker who bribed Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner, wore an FBI wire to record his dealings with her and then testified at the corruption trial that sent her to federal prison has paid off the $20,000 fine imposed by state regulators, according to a court notice filed on Monday.
Steele Stephens, 54, of Little Rock had promised to pay the money within a year of reaching an agreement with state regulators who had sued him in July 2015 to collect the penalty. Court filings show he paid the money a month earlier than had been scheduled. Representatives of Arkansas Securities Commissioner B. Edmond Waters filed notice of satisfaction of judgment on Monday.
Stephens was fined for violating state securities regulations through some of his dealings with Shoffner. He was given immunity from criminal charges by federal prosecutors in exchange for his cooperation.
Complaining that he had refused to pay, regulators went to Pulaski County Circuit Court last year to get a judge to order Stephens to pay the fine. His lawyer responded to the lawsuit by stating that Stephens could not afford to pay after losing his broker's license.
But in late August 2015, the sides reached an agreement that required an immediate $5,000 payment, with the remaining $15,000 due in four $3,750 installments to be paid every three months, with the fine to be repaid by the end of August 2016.
Stephens earned $2.5 million in commissions in the 85 trades he conducted on behalf of the treasurer's office between July 2009 and December 2012. Seven of those trades, which earned him $121,979 in commissions between January 2011 and October 2011, were the focus of the Arkansas Securities Department inquiry that fined him and stripped him of his broker's license last year. Stephens was cleared of two accusations of wrongdoing.
But agency regulators found that Stephens had violated two securities laws by failing to disclose the amount of commission on a proposed sale before a bond matured and for the $36,000 in cash payments he made to Shoffner that were disclosed at her trial.
Shoffner was arrested at her Newport home in May 2013 after she accepted a $6,000 payment from Stephens, hidden inside an apple-pie box. He had video-recorded the encounter for federal investigators, and the recording showed her reaching into the box on her kitchen counter and taking out money.
Stephens had been an FBI informant for about four months at the time and had secretly audio-recorded her at least once before. FBI agents found the money -- all $100 bills -- in a cigarette box in a kitchen drawer.
The pie-box payment was the last of seven $6,000 payments Stephens made to Shoffner.
Stephens told jurors that he didn't consider the payments bribes and made them willingly, saying he "felt sorry for her" because her mother had recently died and she'd had some financial difficulties and suffered an onslaught of publicity about her use of a state-owned vehicle.
Last August, Shoffner was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after a federal jury found her guilty of bribery and extortion.
Metro on 07/26/2016