Both CMAT entities outwardly appeared to be doing well, setting up shop on the second floor of the Power Plant building near the National Aquarium. Fabian had a corner office and paid more than $1 million in salaries to CMAT's top eight employees during the 2005 tax year. In an IRS filing, Fabian claimed CMAT had revenue of $5 million that year and that the center assisted more than 100 organizations in managing their operations and technology.
"As a result, we have served millions of the homeless, the sick, the unemployed, the disadvantaged," Fabian wrote in the filing.
Both CMATs faced challenges, according to former employees. Donations weren't flowing in, and neither were big contracts.
"We knew that we weren't producing enough to cover operations" at the center, Dixon said. "But it's one of those things where I was completely convinced that Alan was a young entrepreneur who was independently wealthy and he was ... investing some of his own money in this enterprise - that it was his vision, if you will."
Politics
At the same time, Fabian was making a name for himself in Republican circles. He founded the American Patriot Political Action Committee in 2003, which donated to several Republican candidates and at least one Democrat: Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski.
Fabian himself gave thousands to various candidates, including $100,000 to President Bush's Presidential Inaugural Committee. He received tickets to the swearing-in and one of the inaugural balls, according to Capital News Service.
A photo of the couple shows Fabian in a three-button black jacket and bowtie and his wife, Jackie, in a sparkling teal dress. They look happy, if a little tired.
Now, many Republicans refused to talk about Fabian publicly, most expressing disbelief at the situation. The Republican National Committee did not return e-mails and telephone calls requesting comment.
Those who worked with Fabian on political campaigns considered him a go-to guy, whose phone calls were always returned.
When Fabian learned that then-Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele was planning to run for the U.S. Senate, he volunteered as his finance chairman. The campaign raised $8.4 million in an unsuccessful Senate bid against Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin.
Fabian then volunteered to be one of 67 finance chairs for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Louis Pope, a Romney for President Maryland co-chair, said Fabian never held a position of power within the campaign and was removed immediately after the indictment.
