The great pretender

Alan Fabian - millionaire, entrepreneur and fundraiser - was also an utter fraud

Sun Special Report

"I'm sorry about his troubles," Pope said. "But it has nothing to do with the Romney campaign or the Steele campaign."

Moving up

To the outside world, Fabian appeared to be living a life with few troubles.

The Fabians worked their way up to the 7,900-square-foot Hunt Valley home, starting out with one in the Lutherville-Timonium area that was roughly a third the size in 1995. They traded it for a larger home in Reisterstown three years later, before buying the $1.5 million mansion in 2003.

There, the Fabians built a pool house with its own kitchen, which was highlighted in Baltimore's Style magazine. And the family spent $10,000 to upgrade and organize the home's garage, which was featured in The Sun.

John Gaffigan, who would later donate to Fabian's PAC, met him through a friend and attended a party at his French country-style house. Gaffigan thinks of it as a Better Homes and Gardens sort of place, with one cool feature: Fabian had a secret room inside.

Gaffigan recalled one of those situations where you move a book and a wall slides away, he said, then you get "access to the inner realm."

Hunt Valley neighbors describe the Fabian family as friendly and outgoing. Jackie Fabian was quick to invite people over for coffee. Alan Fabian always waved to passers-by.

Mindy Overocker, a North Carolina real estate agent, remembers meeting the Fabians eight years ago when their youngest son was a baby, the other two children barely school-age.

The family bought a four-bedroom beach house that year, according to property records. It is in Holden Beach, which is about a half-hour south of Wilmington. Since then, the family bought many more properties and began making regular sojourns to the island - trips they would later make by private jet, bringing their two small dogs along.

"When he's in business mode, he's definitely a businessman," Overocker said. "When he's in family mode, he's a family man. When he is on the beach having fun with my husband and I, he's just a good friend."

North Carolina artist Sue Scharling remembers preparing them all for a family portrait on the beach as they alternated between stiff grins and joking about no-see-um bugs in their teeth.

"They just had a good time," Scharling said. "They were low-key and fun."

Guilty plea

Fabian kept up the well-off and relaxed facade even after he knew investigators began unraveling his scheme in 2004, according to court documents. And some of his employees, including Barr, were called in for questioning by the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore.