Friday, August 31, 2007

Former attorney sentenced

A former bankruptcy attorney was sentenced yesterday to a year and a day in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Leslie W. Lickstein, 54, of Fairfax, was accused of preparing a false settlement statement in the sale of a property in Great Falls in July 2002.

As a result, Lehman Brothers Bank made a multimillion dollar home mortgage loan to a home buyer who was not creditworthy. The loan went into default, and the bank sold the property at a loss of $1.1 million. Lickstein was ordered to pay that amount in restitution.

Chuck Rosenberg, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, identified Lickstein as the first president of the Northern Virginia Bankruptcy Bar Association.

Lickstein’s license to practice law was suspended for five years in 2004 by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Alexandria and by the Virginia State Bar. He was found to have failed to disclose to the court a fact necessary to avoid assisting in a criminal or fraudulent act.

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