Roselle attorney charged with theft, fraud

A Roselle attorney faces charges of theft and related financial crimes in two separate cases involving senior citizen clients, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Lino J. Menconi, whose license was suspended last November, was to be arraigned Thursday at the George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago. When he failed to appear, Judge Joseph Kazmierski issued a $50,000 warrant for Menconi’s arrest.

Prosecutors say Menconi failed to distribute to his clients money owed to them and instead spent it on personal and business expenses including his secretary’s wages and his children’s tuition. He faces multiple counts of theft by deception, unauthorized control, misappropriation of financial institution property and financial fraud. If convicted of the most serious charges, Menconi faces four to 15 years in prison. Probation is also available.

In November 2008, Menconi agreed to represent an 86-year-old seeking to recover funds he had invested in an IRA with Fifth Third Securities, prosecutors said. The following August, Fifth Third Securities refunded about $112,000 to the man. Menconi never turned the money over to his client, said prosecutors. Instead he deposited the check into his business account.

In another case, prosecutors say Menconi spent about $122,000 of his 71-year-old, now deceased uncle’s annuity on personal expenses. While serving as his uncle’s attorney, Menconi converted the man’s annuity from a death benefit payout to regular payments, authorities say. From January to September, 2010, Menconi received four annuity checks totaling about $174,000, but spent only $52,000 on the care of his uncle who resided in a nursing home at the time.