ALEXANDRIA, VA – July 27, 2009 – (RealEstateRama) — Richard A. Forde, also known as Euburn Richard Forde, age 51, formerly of Great Falls, Va., was sentenced today to 42 months in prison for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme from approximately December 2001 to January 2004.
Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; W. Clarkson McDow, Jr., United States Trustee; and Joseph Persichini Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Anthony J. Trenga. In addition his prison term, Forde was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $1.11 million in restitution.
In February 2009, Forde was convicted by a jury of conspiracy, bankruptcy fraud and bank fraud. Forde, an educational consultant, owned a residence located on Leigh Mill Road in Great Falls, Va. According to court documents, Forde, along with others, fraudulently obtained a mortgage loan from Lehman Brothers Bank, FSB, in the amount of approximately $3.9 million, so that an individual named Alladean M. Allobaidy could buy Great Falls property from Forde. Court documents state that Forde, Allobaidy and a mortgage broker named David Freelander withheld key information about the financial terms of the sale in the loan application to Lehman Brothers. When the mortgage went into default, a Lehman Brothers Bank affiliate took back the property and sold it at a loss of approximately $1.1 million.
Court records state that Forde was in bankruptcy at the time of the sale to Allobaidy. According to court documents, Forde and Freelander and bankruptcy attorney Leslie W. Lickstein caused several liens to be placed on the Great Falls property after Forde had filed for bankruptcy, without permission from the Bankruptcy Court. Those liens were paid off at settlement, siphoning that money, and other money, out of the sale. In reality, the money should have been available to pay creditors in the Forde bankruptcy case.
Lickstein, Allobaidy, and Freelander were sentenced last year for their roles in the scheme. Lickstein, a former president of the Northern Virginia Bankruptcy Bar Association, was sentenced on August 30, 2007, by United States District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee to 12 months and 1 day in prison. Allobaidy, the buyer of the Great Falls property, was sentenced on April 27, 2007, by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton to 15 months in prison. Freelander, the mortgage broker, was sentenced on September 22, 2008, by Judge Hilton to 48 months in prison.
The case was investigated by the FBI. Assistant United States Attorney Thomas H. McQuillan and Special Assistant United States Attorney Dennis Early of the Office of the United States Trustee prosecuted the case for the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov.
United States Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of Virginia
Contact: (703) 299-3700
