Wheeling man found guilty of forgery
The former owner of a Des Plaines sealcoating and paving company was found guilty Tuesday of forgery after trying to deposit a fraudulent check last November.
Andrew A. Schwartz, of Wheeling, was taken into custody immediately after Cook County Judge Thomas Fecarotta announced his finding. Schwartz, who has two burglary convictions from 2005, faces up to five years in prison when he's sentenced, possibly as early as next month. Probation is also an option.
Erin Heinz, president of the Royal Dunton Condominium Association in Arlington Heights, testified she signed a contract with Schwartz in September 2014 for his company, BP Sealcoating and Paving, to replace the parking lot at a cost of about $30,500.
Heinz testified she made a down payment of $12,791 to Schwartz at that time. However, Arlington Heights inspectors found the work deficient, Heinz said, and she contacted Schwartz about making repairs. She testified that Schwartz mentioned he could make the repairs but "was rather insistent on payment."
"He wanted to do substantially less work than the inspector told me would be necessary to correct the issues," Heinz said.
In November, the condo association's bank notified Heinz that Schwartz tried to deposit an $18,000 check that Heinz denied signing, saying the signature "appeared" to look like hers but was not. The font "was substantially different" from the condo association's check font and the check number was out of order with other association checks from that period, she said.
Schwartz testified he was unable to correct certain issues because Royal Dunton did not allow him to do so. He said he received an $18,000 check he believed was from the condo association and attempted to deposit it on Nov. 18, 2014. Under cross examination, he admitted that was the same day he received an email from Heinz asking him to remove his equipment from condominium property.
Schwartz's attorney Myron Goldstin insisted his client thought the check was "viable" and said there is no indication that Schwartz manufactured fraudulent checks,
Fecarotta disagreed, saying "a forgery is a forgery is a forgery no matter how good it looks."