Prosecutors narrow down amounts in Lincolnshire expense fraud case

Evidence presented at the trial of a man accused of stealing $2.5 million from a Lincolnshire company will focus on a much smaller amount, a prosecutor said Monday.

Jurors in the case against Ian Gittlitz, 59, of Stony Brook, N.Y., will be told only that Gittlitz took $187,000 by double- and triple-billing ICD Publications for his expenses while serving as the company's president.

However, Lake County Assistant State's Attorney Christen Bishop said, prosecutors will seek to force Gittlitz to repay the entire amount if he is convicted later this year.

Gittlitz was charged in March 2009 with stealing the money from the publisher of trade publications between 2000 and 2007 through a number of schemes.

Bishop told Circuit Judge Fred Foreman she intends to focus the trial only on expense account reimbursement forms Gittlitz submitted and was paid for two or three times, sometimes after the company had paid directly for the expenses.

Bishop said those records will be enough to sustain the charge against Gittlitz, theft over $100,000, and it will not be necessary for the prosecution or defense to submit literally millions of documents to the jury.

Other methods Gittlitz is accused of using to accumulate the entire amount include submitting expense reports of other employees as his own and having company checks written directly to him.

If Gittlitz is convicted, Bishop said, she will seek to have the court order reimbursement of the entire $2.5 million.

"Restitution is a separate issue from the evidence we need to put on in order to earn a criminal conviction," Bishop said. "We are confident we can establish that ICD Publications is owed the entire amount.

The company shares Bishop's confidence, in that it has filed a civil suit in Cook County seeking repayment of all the money company auditors say Gittlitz received without authorization.

Monday was the first time Gittlitz appeared in court for a hearing of the case since last fall, when he suffered a stroke that a physician in New York said made it unsafe for him to travel.

In May, Foreman issued an arrest warrant for Gittlitz but held its effective date until Monday after Bishop argued that Gittlitz had been observed leaving his house for a number of different reasons over the last few months.

Foreman withdrew the warrant on Monday when Gittlitz appeared in court and scheduled a trial of the case for Oct. 4.

If convicted, Gittlitz faces a mandatory prison sentence of between four and 15 years.

He remains free on $1.5 million bond.