Jail time, probation for real estate broker who stole clients' escrow money

A Burr Ridge real estate agent, convicted of stealing potential homebuyers' earnest money, avoided prison time Tuesday but will serve probation and 120 days in jail.

A DuPage County jury convicted Harry “Bud” Simons in November of five counts of theft. He faced between four and 15 years in prison.

Judge Robert Miller sentenced Simons to 48 months probation, 120 days in jail and ordered him to gain employment and pay $145,000 in restitution.

Assistant State's Attorney Diane Michalak said that between February 2013 and February 2014, Simons accepted earnest deposits totaling $145,300 from clients who wished to purchase homes being sold by his real estate agency, County Line RE/MAX in Burr Ridge.

But once business slowed and the former Willowbrook resident began having trouble paying the agency's bills, prosecutors said, he began transferring money from the agency's escrow account that holds the buyers' earnest money into the agency's operating fund. In all, more than $239,000 was transferred among the accounts in 68 transactions.

Closings on homes ranging in price from $1.6 million in Oak Brook to $55,000 in Berwyn were in jeopardy as agents and their clients began to discover their money was gone.

“He is a bad businessman but that is not a license to steal,” Michalak said during Tuesday's sentencing hearing.

Simons' attorney, John Paul Carroll, maintained throughout the trial that prosecutors' account of events is accurate and put on no defense, but he said Simons wasn't guilty of the theft because he never intended to deprive his customers of their earnest money permanently.

“Was he stupid? Yes. Did he make stupid moves? Yes,” Carroll said, “But we all know what horse to bet on after the race has been run.”