Kwame Brown pleads guilty to bank fraud

June 08, 2012 -
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Former D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown speaks to reporters after pleading guilty to bank fraud Friday


Former D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to a single felony charge of bank fraud, and prosecutors asked that a federal judge sentence him to up to six months in prison.

Brown, appearing somber in a dark suit, acknowledged that he falsified an employment verification form and a tax form to inflate his income for a loan application.

"I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart to all those I have let down," said Brown, who began choking up and had tears in his eyes as he spoke to reporters after his court appearance. "I sincerely regret the pain that this has caused... It has been a long and difficult journey."

In his quest to secure a $184,000 home equity loan in 2005, Brown claimed he was making $3,000 per month as "vice president of strategy" for a company. On the form, he said he had a "great" probability of continued employment and forged the signature of someone who was purportedly the company's president. It turned out that person was a college friend of Brown's.

Two years later, Brown sought a $55,335 loan to buy a boat and altered a tax form to artificially increase his income by $50,000, changing a "3" to and "8" to make it appear as if he earned $85,000 from a consulting job.

Brown, who in 2011 became the youngest person to ever ascend to the District's second-ranking post, was charged Wednesday.

Within hours of the charges, Brown met with other city lawmakers in emergency session and later submitted his resignation.

Although bank fraud carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, Brown is likely to receive far less under federal sentencing guidelines and the terms of his plea agreement with prosecutors, which he signed Wednesday.

On Tuesday, though, Brown met with reporters and said he had done nothing wrong and had no plans to resign.

Friday morning's hearing in U.S. District Court was not slated as Brown's only appearance of the day. He is expected to plead guilty to a misdemeanor violation of the District's campaign finance laws at 1:30 p.m. in D.C. Superior Court.

The charges against Brown evolved from a federal investigation into Brown's 2008 campaign that ran for nearly a year. The city's Office of Campaign Finance prompted the investigation when it referred an audit of that campaign to prosecutors after finding activity that one District elections official described as "criminal."

The campaign finance misdemeanor is tied to Brown's role in allowing a relative to spend campaign cash from what prosecutors described as a "side account" to boost the lawmaker's re-election efforts.
Kwame Brown pleads guilty to bank fraud | Washington Examiner