Oxford Attorney Draws Prison Term

OXFORD (WCBI) – An Oxford attorney will spend just over four years in prison on wire fraud charges.

47 year old Tyler Smith received that sentence today after admitting he ran a ponzi scheme based on non existent BP Oil claims. Smith would get loans from wealthy individuals and from banks and use promises of huge settlements from BP as collateral. Smith would pay off some of the loans with proceeds from others in order to get his lenders to trust him. The scheme unraveled when Smith could not prove the claims existed or that they were worth the amount he claimed. The lawyer must also pay $1,573,351.39 in restitution and serve 3 years supervised release when he finishes his 51 month prison term.