Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1994                   TAG: 9403160071
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA                                LENGTH: Medium

BANK FRAUD SUSPECT SAYS HE PAID FOR PHONY LOAN

Bassam Haje, 47, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and FBI agents in unraveling a scheme involving more than $700,000 in fraudulent loans.

Haje's appearance in U.S. District Court on Monday was the latest twist in an unusual case.

Two men linked to a series of fraudulent loans and kickbacks apparently committed suicide.

One of the men, Kenneth R. LeBrun, had testified that he had approved bad loans to Haje's partner, K.J. Ridler, in return for money, sex and a watch.

Ridler, 38, has not been charged in the case. No one answered the phone at her business Tuesday. She does not have a listed home phone number.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph J. Aronica said Haje has "cooperated fully" with investigators since his arrest last month.

Haje agreed to testify before a grand jury investigating the case and provide the government with documents, records and other materials related to the loans.

Ridler and Haje were partners at Nova Funding/Consulting Inc., a McLean firm that obtained loans and unsecured lines of credit for clients in return for a fee.

In the case of the bogus loans, Haje and others split the proceeds and often channeled kickbacks to bankers, the FBI said.

In court papers, Haje said he paid $14,000 to Kent Larson, a vice president of NVR Savings Bank, in return for Larson's approval of numerous loans.

Larson, 40, NVR's vice president in charge of consumer lending, has not been charged. The bank placed him on administrative leave last month. Larson, of Alexandria, did not return a telephone message requesting comment Tuesday.

Haje told the FBI he helped obtain nearly $200,000 in phony loans from NVR since October. The loans typically were issued in the names of people who had no idea their names were being used and relied on false tax statements, false employment records and forged signatures, the FBI said.

Haje, a Fairfax County resident, said he paid Larson on five occasions, including $2,000 in $100 bills for a trip to Atlantic City, according to the court papers. He joined Larson on the trip and gave the banker $1,000 more at the resort, the papers said.

Haje said nothing during his appearance before U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton. He is being held without bond at the Alexandria jail and faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

LeBrun, 41, was a vice president of Federal Savings Bank of Virginia. He pleaded guilty to a bank fraud charge last year and was found dead Aug. 7, apparently of a drug overdose.

Ho Y. You, 56, of McLean, killed himself Feb. 19 after his name was discovered on what the FBI said was an illicit loan, the FBI said.