Lake Barrington man led massive swindle, feds say
Federal authorities Wednesday took over the case against a Lake Barrington Shores man accused of scamming the elderly and the unsuspecting out of their homes and property. In the process, the feds added numerous accusations against Charles H. Landwer Jr., 45, alleging he preyed on no fewer than 17 people, taking a total of $2.4 million in assets.
Landwer, formerly of Bartlett, first ran afoul of the law in the late '80s when he was charged with making a murder-for-hire solicitation against two employees at his Hanover Park auto shop, Chuck's Auto. One employee he suspected of stealing tools and the other he wanted revenge on for ratting Landwer out to authorities on an auto theft scheme based on fraudulent repossessions, authorities said.
After being convicted in 1990 and serving 7 years in prison, Landwer emerged to enroll in Elgin Community College in accounting. In 1998, he won the National Tax Preparation Contest, preparing a flawless 16-page tax return culled from 120 confusing financial documents. Landwer was the only one of thousands of national competitors who scored perfectly on the test.
But he ran back into trouble in 2005, when he was charged with bilking an Elgin man out of $170,000 after gaining the man's confidence as a volunteer at the Wayne Township Senior Center, Kane County authorities said at the time. The charges were later dropped when the man got his money back from Landwer.
In 2006, the state of Illinois filed felony theft charges against him, alleging he stole $352,444 from a Huntley woman in a complicated land scheme.
Wednesday's federal criminal complaint encompasses that charge, and the Illinois attorney general's office is expected to drop its case today at a court appearance in McHenry County. No court date has been set in the federal case, which will be prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorney Michelle Nasser Weiss.
Federal authorities did not itemize Landwer's alleged swindles, but detailed one Kendall County scheme in which Landwer, using his company Accurate Financial Group of Bloomingdale, led a pair of Yorkville homeowners to believe that he was helping them refinance their home to avoid foreclosure. Landwer then convinced them the home needed to be put in trust while he worked out the financing with the mortgage holder. In fact, the complaint alleges, Landwer controlled the trust and then transferred the home to his name before refinancing it and trying to take out $230,000 in equity.
Landwer had the money wired to his account at a Hinsdale bank and then tried to withdraw it in cash, but the bank told him it did not have that much money on hand and would have to order it. Before they could, bank investigators put a hold on the cash, suspecting fraud, and Landwer was arrested.
Landwer's attorney indicated he no longer wanted to represent him at his last court appearance and Landwer, who is being held in the McHenry County Jail, could not be reached for comment Thursday.