- Washington County sheriff’s office
- BRANDON BARBER
40/29 appears to have the early break on big news from Northwest Arkansas. It says:
U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge will announce shortly in Fort Smith details about the indictment of former high-flying developer Brandon Barber on bank fraud and money laundering charges.
Several others apparently have been charged. Barber was arrested in New York, 40/29 said.
Barber, who’s been in bankruptcy, once flew high as a developer in go-go days in Northwest Arkansas. But he’s fallen on hard times. Past headlines include being taken into custody in Fayetteville in 2010 (not this week as I originally wrote) related to allegations that he’d written hot checks to cover gambling losses at a Las Vegas casino. He worked out an agreement on that dispute.
UPDATE: Here’s the 27-count indictment (an amended version of a Grand Jury indictment first returned in July and unsealed this week.) It also names K. Vaughn Knight, a bankruptcy lawyer for Barber, and James Van Doren of New York. It alleges Barber diverted money loaned by banks — three loans for more than $21 million from Legacy National Bank for the Legacy Condominiums and retail project in Fayetteville; $14.4 million from Metropolitan National Bank for a commercial development on Joyce Boulevard; more than $17 million from the Enterprise Bank of St. Louis for a proposed Bellafont Retail development — to other purposes and that he schemed to conceal assets from creditors in his bankruptcy. Van Doren figured in the latter allegation, at one point supposedly taking a briefcase with $30,000 in cash from Barber as part of the scheming. Knight was accused of using his lawyer’s trust account as a vehicle to pass money to Barber out of reach of creditors.
UPDATE II: I had to leave early today and belatedly find the news release from the U.S. attorney in Fort Smith which details this indictment and a second which named two more men, Jeff Whorton and Brandon Rains, in a conspiracy to defraud First Federal Bank of Harrison. News release follows.