By Annapolis Notebook
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Alan B. Fabian, a businessman indicted last week by a federal grand jury in connection with what prosecutors say was a computer-equipment leasing scheme that defrauded companies and financial institutions of $32 million, was a leading fundraiser for former lieutenant governor Michael S. Steele (R).

Prosecutors are asking that Fabian, a Cockeysville resident who served as finance chairman for Steele's U.S. Senate bid last year, forfeit assets that include a yacht, eight properties in North Carolina and three vehicles.

Since 2001, when prosecutors say the scheme began, Fabian donated more than $44,000 to Maryland candidates and party committees, according to the State Board of Elections. Steele received $8,000 for his two campaigns for lieutenant governor and an additional $4,200 for his Senate bid.

Former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) received $8,000 from Fabian, who contributed an additional $19,500 to the Maryland Republican State Central Committee. Fabian has also been a prolific donor to Republicans nationally.

"My concern with Fabian is how much of his ill-gotten gains he contributed not only to Michael Steele but Bob Ehrlich and the Republican Party," said Maryland Democratic Party spokesman David Paulson, who called on Republicans to return the donations. "Should he be found guilty, this money may belong to other people."

David B. Irwin, an attorney for Fabian, said the donations were not "ill-gotten." Irwin declined to comment about the merits of the case but said, "We are hoping for an early resolution of the matter."

Steele is now chairman of GOPAC, an organization that recruits Republican candidates nationally. An aide said he was out of the country yesterday.

John Flynn, executive director of the Maryland GOP, dismissed Paulson's comments as "partisan jabs," adding that the current Republican leadership does not know Fabian and has not received his money.

Henry Fawell, a former Ehrlich aide, accused Democrats of hypocrisy, noting there was no outcry over past contributions to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and others by former senator Thomas L. Bromwell (D-Baltimore County), who pleaded guilty last month to racketeering charges.

-- John Wagner

Gov. Martin O'Malley returned to his old political stamping grounds yesterday to endorse Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (D), who would like to keep his former job for a full term.

Dixon, the former City Council president, inherited the final year of O'Malley's second term as mayor when he was sworn in as governor in January. She is running far ahead of a field of a half-dozen other Democrats in next month's primary.

O'Malley called Dixon "a tireless advocate to advance the common good for all of the people of our city." Kweisi Mfume, a former Baltimore City Council member, congressman and leader of the NAACP, also endorsed Dixon.

-- John Wagner