NEW ORLEANS — A man accused of stealing people’s houses using false property deeds is on the lam weeks after a federal bankruptcy judge issued a warrant for his arrest, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Jonathan Burden filed documents in bankruptcy court last week claiming he “first learned of the warrant for his arrest from a third party who saw … an investigative report by reporter David Hammer,” a story that aired on WWL Louisiana on Nov. 9. Burden also acknowledged in court documents that he received formal notice of the arrest warrant by mail at his Uptown residence on Nov. 13.
But Brian Fair, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in New Orleans, said Tuesday that agents went to the house and were told by Burden’s family that he doesn’t live there. Fair said efforts to locate Burden since then have been unsuccessful.
“Burden is a fugitive, he’s on the run and is aware that he’s wanted,” Fair said.
WWL Louisiana asked Burden’s attorneys, Pius Obioha and Joseph Barbie Sr., why their client hadn’t submitted to the arrest warrant. They did not respond.
Burden has not responded to repeated requests for comment from WWL over the last six months and has failed to show up to hearings in both state and federal court. He now faces $26,800 in sanctions issued by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill, who ruled Burden stole a Central City fourplex from a woman’s bankruptcy estate after she died this past January.
Grabill issued a warrant for Burden’s arrest when he didn’t show up for a hearing Nov. 9. The warrant directs marshals to arrest him and bring him to Grabill’s court this Thursday, Nov. 30.
Last week, Burden’s attorneys filed his first answer in a bankruptcy case filed against him by Johnnie Robinson last March. Robinson’s sister Lorraine owned a fourplex and filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020. After she died in January 2023, Burden filed a deed in the Orleans Parish Land Records claiming Lorraine Robinson had signed the house over to him in 2019, before she filed the bankruptcy case.
Burden filed a sworn statement on Nov. 22 claiming he paid Lorraine Robinson $9,500 to purchase the house and let her live in it rent-free and collect the rent from the tenants until she died. Burden swears in the affidavit that he only became “aware of this complaint” against him and hired an attorney to find the case in court records after he heard about the WWL report and got a notice of the arrest warrant in the mail on Nov. 13.
But court records show all the previous court notices were also sent to that same address, and Obioha also filed records in court last week showing Burden did in fact receive notice of a hearing in the matter back in June. The documents filed by Burden’s attorney show he received notice of a June 9 hearing on June 8. Other court records show Burden didn’t show up for that hearing either.
Burden is accused in at least seven lawsuits of tricking New Orleans area homeowners into signing over their properties to him and, in some of the cases, of filing false documents to seize people’s homes out from under them. He has repeatedly ignored court orders and tied up those cases in civil court, even while the FBI and New Orleans Police Department investigate him over the allegations of criminal fraud.
WWL Louisiana reported those allegations against Burden in a series called “Un-Real Estate” that began airing in May. Burden often bragged about his “hustle” on Instagram and Facebook, posting videos of some of the visits he made to property owners who later accused him of taking their homes. After the stories aired, Burden made his social media pages private.