Federal prosecutors Wednesday accused Washington Council chairman Kwame R. Brown with mortgage fraud, saying he lied on his home mortgage application as part of a scheme to buy a $50,000 power boat.
Brown, who immediately resigned as chairman of the City Council, was charged in a "criminal information" document which can only be filed by prosecutors with the defendant’s consent.
Prosecutors say the politician misstated his income by “tens of thousands of dollars” over a two-year period in a scheme that started in 2005.
Investigators were already probing Brown’s personal finances and the flow of money tied to his 2008 political campaign, according to a report in The Washington Post.
The Post reported that Brown bought a home in the Hillcrest section of Washington for $313,000 in 2002 and then over the next few years obtained at least five loans collateralized by the property, including a home equity loan from Industrial Bank.
Eventually, the politician was in debt to the tune of $700,000, the newspaper reported.
