D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R.

Brown resigns after bank fraud charge The District of Columbia Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown resigned shortly after the federal court charged him with bank fraud on Wednesday. Browns resignation plunged the city administration into leadership vacuum. Reports suggest that Brown, one of the most dominant power brokers in the D.C. government, had lied about his earnings on bank loan applications. According to sources, the bank scam allegations against Brown are part of a federal probe. It symbolizes the hottest charge of crime to churn local politics in the nation's center. Because of the great respect that I have for the institution that is the Council of the District of Columbia, I have chosen the only honorable course in submitting my resignation at this time, Brown wrote in a letter to the council secretary, according to a report in the Washington Post. I simply will not hold this body, and its important work hostage to the resolution of my personal indiscretions. It is pertinent to mention here that the charge makes certain additional challenges on the council which had lost a council member for corruption at the start of this year. Besides, it comes as federal probers go on investigating Mayor Vincent Grays 2010 campaign. Mary Cheh, Council chair pro tempore, issued a statement, shortly after Browns resignation, in which she promised D.C. inhabitants that the activities of the Council will keep going without any interruption.
The former D.C Chairman was indicted of overstating his earnings by thousands of dollars on application for a home and boat mortgage. Even though federal bank scam holds up to thirty years in jail, yet Brown is expected to be given a much shorter punishment for his cooperation with prosecutors. Brown, 41, was reportedly charged in criminal information, a manuscript that normally indicates that a defendant has decided to plead guilty. An appeal trial is set for Friday. "I have made some very serious mistakes in judgment for which I will take full responsibility," Brown wrote in a letter Wednesday to the Council secretary, according to the USA Today. "I have behaved in ways that I should not have. I was wrong, and I will face the consequences of that conduct."