A flashy Northern Virginia businessman who fled the country and creditors last spring has been arrested in Texas on charges accusing him of using fake insurance policies as collateral for nearly $18 million in loans.
Osama El-Atari is now back in Virginia and is scheduled to appear in Alexandria’s federal court for a detention hearing Wednesday, court records said. The owner of several franchises of Lucky’s Sports Theatre and Grill and Original Steakhouse & Sports Theatre disappeared last summer as creditors closed in, demanding in lawsuits that he pay back more than $60 million in loans.
In court documents, authorities say El-Atari left the United States in May, leaving behind a $3.8 million house in Loudoun County and a fleet of high-end cars that his many Northern Virginia traffic tickets show he enjoyed to drive at high speeds. Records do not indicate when he returned to the U.S., but he was arrested on bank fraud charges near Austin, Texas, earlier this month. Court records did not list an attorney for El-Atari.
Authorities say El-Atari applied for $17.6 million in loans from United Bank using fake life insurance policies as collateral. The first loan for $5 million was taken out in December 2007 to supply El-Atari with the cash he needed to open two Original Steakhouse franchises in Maryland. In April 2008, he received a $900,000 loan to expand an Original Steakhouse franchise, and in November 2008, he received $12 million for a real estate investment.
The loans were provided because he claimed to have more than $20 million in life insurance policies, court documents said. When the bank asked for extensive documentation of the policies, El-Atari allegedly created a fake e-mail address for a nonexistent insurance company.
Of the insurance policy numbers El-Atari is accused of providing, authorities said only one actually existed, but it was only for $250,000 and registered to a Texas resident.
