The federal court in Atlanta, Georgia has granted a defense request to continue to early next year, sentencing of the instigator of a forged construction bond scam in which one of the victims was Whitehorn Construction — the original contractor of the multi-million dollar Airport Road project.

Eric D. Campbell, who is in federal custody, was indicted in May this year by a federal grand jury in Atlanta, charging him with three counts of wire fraud; two counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

However, under a plea deal with prosecutors in October, Campbell pled guilty to one count of wire fraud, a crime punishable by a maximum of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

Campbell was scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 6 next year, but his attorney, Nicole M. Kaplan filed a motion on Nov. 30 for continuance, because the pre sentence interview by the federal probation office could not be conducted in time for the  deadline, due to her obligations in other cases, and family illness.

Accordingly, Campbell sought a one month continuance to give the probation office and counsel sufficient time to conduct the pre sentence interview and then complete their report, according to the defense motion.

On Dec. 1, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr., granted the request “in the interest of justice” and set a new sentence date for Feb. 6, 2015.

According to the plea agreement, part of the amount of money lost and attributed to the action of the defendant is at least $1 million but less than $2.5 million. Additionally, there were more than ten victims involved and the federal government intends to ensure that money owed all victims is part of the restitution.

The indictment listed 23 projects where Campbell used forged and fraudulent bonds and power of attorney documents. Among the projects listed was the local federally funded $7.99 million project by Whitehorn Construction for the Airport Road project.