Long Grove man pleads guilty to $1 million theft

Two days after he was thrown in jail for failing to post the bond he had promised, a Long Grove man admitted to stealing more than $1 million worth of cash and belongings from a Wheeling company.

Patrick Del Monico, 67, not only falsified company invoices to swindle checks he would then cash, but he also walked off with two of the company's oil paintings, a sofa and a Bobcat tractor, he admitted.

Del Monico worked for Indeck Power Equipment Co. from 1993 to 2003 as the company's transportation manager. After working there, he tried defrauding the government out of more than $2 million by falsely claiming he had shipped them 10 generators he knew did not exist, his plea agreement said.

Then he went to work for Demar Logistics of Carol Stream in 2005 and 2006 and persuaded the company to pay him $25,000 as an advance on two big contracts he said he had secured. In fact, the contracts were non-existent.

He also committed bankruptcy fraud in 2004 and 2005 by giving the court a false accounting of his assets, said the plea agreement, signed by Del Monico and his lawyer, Paul Casbarian, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jackie Stern.

U.S. District Judge John Darrah will sentence Del Monico at 1 p.m May 27. He faces an estimated seven to nine years in prison.