The day before Alan Fabian was arraigned on charges that he perpetrated a $40 million fraud scheme — one of the largest in Maryland history — the businessman booked a private jet to fly home from North Carolina.
“Instead of renting a car … he took a private jet back,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ty Kowitz said Thursday, the first day of Fabian’s sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court.
Prosecutors spent much of Thursday morning discussing the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by Fabian, 43, of Cockeysville. They mentioned all-inclusive trips taken to New York, Egypt and Israel. Security teams hired to protect the family. Private sails on a yacht.
“He lived in a spectacular house,” testified James Little, whom Fabian allegedly bilked out of $500,000. “He drove nice cars. He had a vacation home.”
Fabian, a certified public accountant and major Republican Party player, has already pleaded guilty to mail fraud and filing a false tax return in a scheme to defraud businesses, banks and financial institutions.
Prosecutors are seeking at least 10 years in prison.
Fabian, who served as former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s finance director during his 2006 bid for the Senate, was indicted in August after he allegedly created two companies to purchase $32 million in computer hardware and software for other businesses. But Fabian’s companies never purchased the equipment, or bought much less expensive equipment, according to the indictment.
Fabian’s attorney, James Wyda, said the businessman is a good person.
“It’s a story of a good man who rose too high too fast and got too close to the sun and fell,” Wyda said. “Good people sometimes make terrible mistakes.”
Fabian has donated more than $44,000 to Maryland’s Republican Central Committee and various GOP candidates since 2001, the year federal prosecutors say he began the scheme.
Fabian’s supporters point to his philanthropic efforts, including his creation of the Baltimore-based Centre for Technology and Management, a company Fabian founded with allegedly fraudulent funds. Through that company, Fabian recently opened a free computer center for residents in Baltimore’s Druid Hill neighborhood.
Fabian also donated $25,000 to Barbara Bush’s Foundation for Family and $65,000 to New Jersey’s Cambridge School for children with learning disabilities.
The sentencing hearing is expected to conclude today.
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