Anchorage developer Lee E. Baker, Jr., 57, is headed for a three-year stint in a federal penitentiary for misusing a $9.2 million construction loan. Baker's company, Discovery Construction, had obtained the loan from Denali Federal Credit Unit to construct an 85-unit apartment complex in Anchorage called Bryn Mawr.
The project was never completed. On Tuesday, Baker was sentenced to 36 months in jail for 12 counts of making false statements to a credit union. Baker used $4.3 million of the loan before defaulting, and prosecutors showed that most of it did not go toward work completed on the project, even though Baker had told the credit union he was getting the work done.
In addition to serving jail time, he is required to pay back $3 million.