More This Week in Crime: White Collar Edition

What an exciting week! First, some kids get busted for breaking into a country club, now two grownups are arrested for embezzlement at Lake Fairfax Park.

Two employees of the Water Mine Family Swimmin' Hole in Reston were arrested yesterday by Fairfax County police for allegedly embezzling money from the pool office.

Police said an anonymous tip to the county park authority last month led detectives to start investigating missing funds at the water park, which is part of Lake Fairfax Park, just off Leesburg Pike. Police obtained warrants charging Michael A. Golino, 23, of the 47500 block of Griffith Place and Justin T. Hogan, 21, of the 20800 block of Butterwood Falls Terrace, both in Sterling, with one count of embezzlement, and both men turned themselves in yesterday at the Reston station.

And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids! Actually, we just love saying "Family Swimmin' Hole," because it's so not Reston, right down to the picture of the dentally challenged hillbilly they use on the signs out front. Real hillbillies would never stand for restrictions on where they can park their boats, after all.

Anyhoo, now we come to a tale of wheeling and dealing real estate intrigue, kind of like Donald Trump, only more explicitly illegal and without the toupee.

A 47-year-old Reston man pleaded guilty to federal fraud and money laundering charges in U.S. District Court Thursday.

Rajasekhar Marni was charged in connection with real estate fraud scheme that took place in 2005 and 2006, according to the office of Chuck Rosenburg, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of at least $500,000 and full restitution when he is sentenced by United States District Judge T.S. Ellis, III on Oct. 31, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

According to court documents, Marni was the president of Loanworth Corporation Inc., a Vienna-based real estate firm. He defrauded three sets of clients, resulting in a loss to those victims of approximately $1.14 million.

In March 2006, Marni arranged to purchase a Fairfax Station home for $889,000. The homeowners agreed to finance the purchase. Marni had the victims transfer title to him while he signed a deed of trust setting out the terms of the loan. Marni recorded with Fairfax County documentation transferring title to the property to him but never recorded the documentation related to the loan. Marni then sold the property to a third party and used the proceeds to, among other things, buy a house for himself in Vienna.

As part of the plea, Marni admitted to also defrauding a Lorton couple, whom he convinced in November 2005 to transfer title to their property to Loanworth for six months while he tried to sell the property to a third party, according to the U.S. attorney's office. During that time, without the homeowners’ knowledge, Marni took out loans against the property totaling $227,778. He never repaid the loans, which subsequently went into default. In June 2006, title in the home, which Marni had not sold to a third party, was returned to the original owners. Less than four months later, one of Marni’s lenders foreclosed on the home.

Nice. I'm sure his victims will be happy he'll likely go to one of those cushy white-collar prisons, instead of this place (possibly NSFW, unless your employer is cool about the movie Office Space).