Local Real Estate Developer Involved in Herndon Project to Serve Six-Year Sentence

Todd Hitt, the CEO of Kiddar Capital, a Falls Church asset management firm, will serve a 6 1/2 year prison sentence for securities fraud.

His family will pay $20 million to investors Hitt defrauded, including $17 million he secured from investors to purchase a five-story office building next to the future Herndon Metro Station.

Earlier this year, Hitt admitted that he lied to friends and investors to secure investments for his firm and other Northern Virginia real estate projects.

Here’s more from the office of U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger:

The investments included Hitt’s solicitation of approximately $17 million from investors in order to purchase a five-story office building adjacent to a planned future stop on the Silver Line in Herndon. Hitt made false statements and material omissions to investors by failing to disclose that a significant portion of the monies raised were commingled with other unrelated investment projects, used for personal spending to support an extravagant lifestyle and new investor’s funds used to pay off old investors in a Ponzi-like scheme. Hitt’s fraudulent conduct resulted in investor losses of approximately $20 million.

According to the Washington Post, Hitt acknowledged that he used money from new investors to pay off earlier ones while “buying himself jewelry, sports tickets and vacations on private jets.” He donated money to charities in “hopes of boosting his image as a developer,” the report stated.

Hitt has forfeited his Arlington home as part of his plea deal.

Photo via Kiddar Capital