Former Atlanta City Councilmember Antonio Brown pleads guilty to bank fraud

January 10th, 2023

A former Atlanta city councilman has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bank fraud.

U.S. District Court records show Antonio Brown entered his plea before a judge Monday as part of a deal with prosecutors. He had been scheduled to stand trial next week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Brown served two years on Atlanta’s city council before running an unsuccessful campaign for mayor in 2021. He campaigned under a cloud of federal charges filed in 2020. Prosecutors accused Brown of opening credit cards, taking out auto loans and spending thousands of dollars before falsely claiming his identity had been stolen.

As part of Brown’s plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop six charges.

The single fraud count that Brown pleaded guilty to involved him lying about his income on a 2017 application for a $75,000 bank loan. Prosecutors agreed to recommend to the judge that he serve 18 months on probation, including eight months under house arrest.

A judge scheduled Brown to be sentenced April 13.