Sharp later was a central figure in the Sharpstown scandal, and as a result he was convicted of violating federal banking and securities laws and was sentenced to three years' probation and a $5,000 fine.
Sharp reportedly borrowed $150 and began building one house at a time in subdivisions that were beginning to surround the city.
[2] Toward the end of World War II, Sharp shrewdly guessed that Houston would continue growing to the northwest, beyond the Garden Oaks subdivision, which architect E. L. Crain had opened in 1937.
In 1946, Sharp hired the architectural firm, Wilson, Morris and Crain, and bought 113 acres (46 ha) of land adjacent to Garden Oaks, where he began constructing prefabricated and preassembled homes on 4780 lots by mid-1947.
[2] Intending to remain involved in all phases of the development, Sharp reorganized his business empire to accomplish that goal.
The BH&G article noted that, "among the first 400 homes built in Oak Forest, only two were alike in planning and only two were white in color.
[3] They, in turn agreed to use the loans to buy stock in Sharp's insurance company (National Bankers Life).
[2] About the same time, Sharpstown State Bank made unsecured loans to Sharp's son-in-law, W. D. Haden II, who was then trying to buy a controlling interest in Olympic Life Insurance Company of Fort Worth.
Concerned by the number and size of the loans Sharpstown bank was making, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) notified bank management that the FDIC might cancel its deposit insurance if it did not immediately cease making these dubious loans.
[3] Though a life-long Methodist, he became a generous donor to Strake Jesuit College Preparatory and became the only Protestant to be named as a "founder" within the benefactors of the Society of Jesus.