In March 2020, Swadley’s landed a cushy contract with Oklahoma’s Tourism and Recreation Department, using taxpayer money to remodel and manage six restaurants in state parks under the Foggy Bottom Kitchen brand.
About a year and a half into that contract, a whistleblower told state authorities Swadley’s had been cooking its books so it could overcharge taxpayers. The state ended its contract and sued Swadley’s for breach of contract in April 2022.
In February of this year, Swadley’s filed a motion saying Oklahoma owed it more than $2.6 million for operations and renovations. That’s in addition to the nearly $17 million the company received during its contract with the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department.
“Swadley's FBK did exactly what Tourism directed, down to the smallest detail, in record time, and in the middle of the pandemic,” the motion said. “And the result is undeniable: uncontroverted [emphasis by Swadley’s attorneys] commercial appraisals and valuations have established that Swadley's FBK's rehabilitation of these six neglected, unsanitary, and dilapidated facilities has given Tourism a ‘Contributory Value’ in excess of $11 million above what Tourism has paid Swadley's FBK to date.”
But those appraisals definitely aren’t “uncontroverted,” anymore. The state responded to that motion this week, saying Swadley’s actually owes Oklahoma more than $4.7 million in damages.
There are a bevy of accusations, including overstating the value of remodels, paying managers before the restaurants opened and invoicing the state for uncompleted work.
The state included hundreds of pages of documents in evidence of its claims. They include screenshots of texts between Swadley’s owner Brent Swadley and former Swadley’s vice-president Curtis Ray Breuklander that discuss “cleaning” invoices to send the state.
“What kind of margin you wanna make on the art group in quartz?” Breuklander wrote. “2x or 1.5x”
“Not to [sic] much,” Swadley replied.
In addition to the civil suit, the state has filed criminal charges against Swadley, Breuklander and chief operating officer Timothy Raymond Hooper. Swadley and Hooper are slated to appear in court on April 4.
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This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
