In October, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office charged a Chantilly man with 11 financial crimes. In court last week, all but one of the charges were dropped, and that one was sent to the grand jury.
The person charged is James Robert "Bob" McClendon Jr., 49, of the Sutton Oaks community. He was initially accused of forging signatures on three, separate promissory notes to receive money from a Loudoun business. Authorities said he reportedly received a $250,000 loan "as a result of the forged promissory notes."
MCCLENDON worked for a Fairfax County company, and his duties included soliciting investors for multiple projects. One venture was the highly anticipated field house that would have been built in a public/private partnership agreement with the Fairfax County Park Authority and located next to the Cub Run Rec Center.
The field house was to contain facilities for a variety of sports — including indoor track and field — plus large-scale events such as conventions and graduations. But last summer, the partnership agreement was dissolved.
The other projects entailed the management of two fields in Herndon used by Northern Virginia youth sports organizations primarily for football, lacrosse and field hockey. In connection with the investment soliciting, said the sheriff's office, McClendon was accused of allegedly "forging other shareholders' names to obtain the money under false pretenses for his own purposes."
Following an investigation on Oct. 5, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office charged McClendon with seven counts of forgery and uttering (passing a phony document as valid), three counts of obtaining money by false pretenses and one count of money laundering.
He allegedly received the money from a Virginia Run man who made McClendon — and others guaranteeing his repayment — sign a promissory note. The case is being handled in Loudoun County because McClendon gave the promissory note to the Virginia Run man on the premises of the man's Loudoun County business.
MCCLENDON appeared last Thursday, Jan. 13, in Loudoun County General District Court. At that time, he waived his right to a preliminary hearing on the one remaining forgery charge, and Judge Julia Cannon certified it to the next grand jury for possible indictment.