Rogers attorney indicted in Brandon Barber case
by June 6, 2013 2:20 pm 127 views
Rogers attorney David Fisher has been indicted by a federal grand jury for his role in helping former Northwest Arkansas developer Brandon Barber commit bank fraud.
Fisher, along with Barber, Brandon Rains and Jeff Whorton were originally indicted in January of several charges related to Barber’s financial dealings during his bankruptcy process.
Barber, once a high-profile developer during the heady days of seemingly non-stop Northwest Arkansas commercial development, was arrested March 20 in New York City and returned to Fayetteville to face the federal charges related to fraud and his bankruptcy filing.
“The indictment today replaces the January indictment, adding Fisher to the conspiracy charge and retaining counts of money laundering against Rains and Whorton,” noted the statement from the office of Conner Eldridge, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas.
According to the Eldridge statement, the indictment charges that Barber, Rains, Whorton, and Fisher made false and fraudulent representations to First Federal Bank in order to obtain loans in excess of the actual value of properties that the loans were obtained to purchase.
The statement further explained, “Multi-party, multi-property real estate transactions were then structured so that excess funds from those loans could be divided between Barber, Rains, and Whorton. Fisher furthered the conspiracy by preparing an agreement between the defendants that detailed how excess funds obtained from the fraudulent scheme would be divided and making false representations to First Federal Bank.”
If convicted, Fisher faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.