A Dallas real estate investor must serve a year and a day in prison over a nearly $13 million North Texas land fraud scheme and highway expansion.
The Dallas Morning News reported Wade Wylie Blackburn was sentenced Thursday by a federal judge in Plano. Blackburn in April, in a plea deal, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
Prosecutor say Blackburn, from 2008 to 2011, conspired to defraud the Texas Department of Transportation by purchasing right of way property along I-35, then planning to resell the land to TxDOT.
Blackburn must also repay $1 million to the state agency.
The case involved land along Interstate 35 in Denton County and allegations of buying rights of way, then demanding inflated prices from the state to accommodate highway expansion. Prosecutors say false information was submitted to a TxDOT appraiser.
A co-defendant who also reached a plea deal awaits sentencing.
