ATLANTA — Antonio Brown, the former Atlanta city councilman and mayoral candidate, was sentenced Thursday in federal court after pleading guilty in January to a single count of bank fraud.
The former councilman and mayoral candidate was not sentenced to any prison time. A federal judge gave Brown a sentence of 18 months probation, with the first eight to be served under home confinement.
Brown was indicted on several financial fraud charges in 2020, but reached a plea agreement in which he admitted guilt only to submitting a loan application "containing materially false information about his income and assets."
A filing by his attorneys stated the falsified loan application was the result of a "series of difficult events."
"Despite the many challenges he faced growing up, Mr. Brown has never been in trouble criminally other than a traffic offense. Rather than turning to a life of crime, he pushed himself to achieve and worked in various positions before eventually creating a successful fashion line," the filing notes. "Due to a series of difficult events - including the death of his business partner at the very time when his fashion line was set to nationally launch in department stores - he was desperate to save his business and applied for the business loan."
The filing indicated that federal prosecutors had agreed to a recommended sentence of 18 months of time served plus probation. The filing notes that Brown has already spent 33 months on supervised pretrial release "with no issues or infractions."
Federal judges are not bound to agreed-upon recommended sentences.
In the meantime Brown, the filing states, has been working "to forge a path for himself and to serve his community" and is now "just a few months away from opening Stir House, a vegan restaurant which will help provide quality, affordable food for an underserved segment of the Atlanta community."