Ex-mayor: Round Lake development held back by indicted investor

Former Round Lake mayor Bill Gentes says commercial development in the village's Route 60 corridor was set back by the man federal authorities claim fleeced investors and financial institutions out of at least $10 million.

Forrest David Laidley, 65, of Libertyville, was charged with mail, wire and bank fraud in a 14-count indictment announced Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office. He is free on bail.

Laidley, an attorney who owned Forrest Properties Inc., offered returns of 10 percent to 40 percent to investors who provided him with loans for purported retail and office projects in Round Lake, Lincolnshire and Glenview, prosecutors said.

Authorities accuse Laidley of making "Ponzi-type" payments to investors who believed they'd make money backing his projects. It's alleged he used the $10 million gained from 1999 to 2004 for his benefit and to repay delinquent loans, and for unrelated real-estate developments.

On one occasion, federal prosecutors contend, Laidley used roughly $17,000 from investors in Glen Gateway Shoppes in Glenview for a mortgage payment on his summer home.

Laidley didn't return messages seeking comment Thursday or Friday. He does not yet have a lawyer of record in federal court.

Gentes was mayor when Laidley appeared before the village's economic development commission in 2003, extolling the virtues of his vision for 11- and 25-acre sites near Route 60 and Cedar Lake Road.

But instead of Laidley's upscale project with a grocery store and ritzy shops, Gentes said, Round Lake wound up with an ordinary strip mall built by another developer on the 11 acres.

"The whole reason was that guy," Gentes said of Laidley.

Gentes said the lack of development on the 25 acres is costing Round Lake about $50,000 in annual sales taxes. He said developers didn't buy the land because the economy began sliding by the time Laidley was out of the picture.

Neither Laidley nor Forrest Properties ever owned the Round Lake parcel, court documents state. Laidley had a contract to purchase the two sites when he was before village officials, Gentes said.

There was no reason to be suspicious about Laidley's plans because he had a track record building Lincolnshire's Village Green, Gentes said. The plaza features shopping, restaurants and offices at Milwaukee Avenue and Route 22.

"Candidly, the village board is going to be more than happy to see anyone who is going to do commercial," Gentes said Friday. "You take it on face value he's legitimate."

Laidley also had investors backing a proposed southern extension of Village Green that never happened, court documents state. Unwilling to take a risk and turn over 15 acres south of Route 22 and Milwaukee it bought for $4.9 million, the village dropped Laidley and another company from redeveloping the downtown area in October 2003.

Lincolnshire Mayor Brett Blomberg recalled having pleasant dealings with Laidley.

"He was always a nice guy and always upfront," Blomberg said. "Keep in mind, he did a successful project at Village Green."

Laidley told the Daily Herald in 2004 that investors who loaned him money for Lincolnshire's Village Green South would instead derive income from the Round Lake project. Glen Gateway Shoppes investors would be shifted to Round Lake, he said.

Problems related to Laidley's investment opportunities surfaced in a series of Daily Herald stories in 2004. The newspaper detailed roughly 20 civil lawsuits filed from 1999 to 2004 that claimed Laidley was not returning millions of dollars invested with him.

Among the investors who sued Laidley were Dennis Marx of JMG Financial Group Ltd. in Oak Brook and Richard Ravin, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Combined Insurance Co. of America.

Laidley handled real-estate transactions for the Archdiocese of Chicago from 1988 to 1996. He graduated from Yale University, where he belonged to the elite Class of 1966 Skull and Bones Society with U.S. Sen. John Kerry and FedEx founder Fred Smith.

He served on the board of directors at Libertyville's Harris Bank branch, Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein and publicly traded Vasco Data Security International Inc. in Oakbrook Terrace.