A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Rogers attorney David Fisher, 38, for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, adding him to an existing indictment that alleges misdeeds by former northwest Arkansas real estate developer Brandon Barber.
Western District U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge said Thursday's indictment replaces a January indictment, adding Fisher to the conspiracy charge and retaining the money laundering counts against Rains and Whorton.
The indictment alleges that Barber, along with Brandon Rains, Jeff Whorton and Fisher, made "false and fraudulent representations to First Federal Bank [of Harrison] in order to obtain loans in excess of the actual value of properties that the loans were obtained to purchase."
(More: Click here to read the indictment.)
"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," the U.S. Attorney's office said.
Fisher faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Barber, 37, was arrested in New York in March and charged with 30 counts, including bank fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud, bankruptcy fraud, false statements and concealment of assets.
Others indicted in the case were Fayetteville attorney K. Vaughn Knight, 46; James Van Doren, 37, of New York; Whorton, 45, of Johnson; and Rains, 31, of Springdale.
Barber, Knight, Van Doren, Whorton and Rains all pleaded not guilty to all the charges in April. On Tuesday, Western District Chief Judge P.K. Holmes agreed to delay the trials of the defendants until September and October.
