Bad dream

An Ashburn woman who fled the United States in July, 2009 was arraigned last month in Loudoun County Circuit Court on charges stemming from an alleged home mortgage scheme that defrauded more than 100 Virginia homeowners and cheated lenders out of $50 million, according to authorities.

Diane H. Frederick Atari, 43, was arrested in Turkey in October, 2009 and arrived at Dulles International Airport in late February after a 16-month extradition process. She faces a dozen felony charges, including making false statements to obtain credit, money laundering and racketeering.

Prosecutors claim Atari would fraudulently fix her clients' credit and inflate their incomes on financial records to qualify them for homes they could not afford, resulting in many foreclosures. Atari is alleged to have netted over $1 million from the scheme.

"She [tried] to make these folks think they can have a piece of the American dream out here, only to turn around a few months later and lose everything they had," Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said in a 2009 interview with Leesburg Today.

In an emotional first court appearance last month, Atari told Loudoun County Circuit Chief Judge James H. Chamblin that investigators were targeting her unfairly. She faces a sentence up to 280 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

"I have been a business owner in Loudoun County for 15 years," she said. "I've run an honest business. … I have raised my family in this county."

Atari claimed there 65 other people involved in the mortgage cases and asked, "How can [Commonwealth's Attorney] Jim Plowman justify not charging any of those 65 people while I stand here by myself?"

"I can accept responsibility for my company, but I can't accept responsibility for the other corporations I know they have evidence against. There is evidence that has been suppressed," Atari said.

"All I've ever asked for is the truth," she said, as her voice began to break. "You can't put all of this on me. I'm a real estate agent. I don't do loans."

Responding to her statements in an interview with Leesburg Today, Plowman said his office would be willing to accept Atari's help. "She thinks there's more [to this case] and we will meet with her. … We're ready to listen."

"This was not an easy case-it deals with forensic audits and attention to detail that goes beyond normal fraud, white-collar crime investigations," Ken Pratt, of the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said, during a press conference last month.

Atari owned and operated ACR Consulting and Atari Management, both located in Loudoun County. Her clients were typically prospective homeowners unable to qualify for mortgages due to bad credit or low income.

To enhance credit scores, Atari apparently would advise credit card companies to add her clients as "authorized users" to her associates' credit accounts. Her associates' good credit would increase the clients' credit scores.

Atari is also charged with falsifying her clients' employment records and other documents so they could qualify for a mortgage. In some cases, she even deposited her own funds into clients' bank accounts to show higher balances.

Authorities have said Atari's alleged actions could have major repercussions, both on the lenders who fell for the scheme, as well as for thousands of individuals in Virginia who wish to obtain a loan to purchase a home.

Atari is scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. Friday, March 11, for a scheduling hearing and introduction of counsel.

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