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A candidate for Northern Virginia’s 8th Congressional District who announced Tuesday that talk-show magnate Oprah Winfrey will lend a hand to her campaign was found liable for a $1.4 million fraud more than a decade ago, according to court documents.

Lavern Chatman, one of 11 candidates competing for the Democratic nomination to succeed Rep. James P. Moran, is the former head of the Northern Virginia Urban League and describes herself as a longtime friend of Winfrey’s.

But her announcement that Winfrey would host a fundraiser for her in Arlington County this spring was overshadowed by revelations that Chatman was found liable in 2001 for her role in a scheme to defraud hundreds of District nursing home employees of at least $1.4 million in owed wages.

According to the documents, Chatman helped an owner of the company that managed the nursing home hide his assets in order to avoid paying court-ordered damages. Chatman has maintained her innocence, saying that she was duped into offering loans to someone she thought was a friend. A D.C. Superior Court judge found her claims to be “patently incredible.”

In a statement issued Tuesday, Chatman said: