Authorities: Wheeling businessman, 3 others received millions in fradualant mortgage loans
A former Wheeling man and three others with Northwest suburban ties face federal fraud charges alleging they were part of a scheme to unlawfully obtain at least $3 million in mortgage loans, the U.S. attorney's office announced Tuesday.
Andrzej Lajewski, who owned Des Plaines-based Highland Consulting Corp., and Chicago-based Quality Management and Remodeling Inc., schemed with two mortgage professionals and the owner of a remodeling company to perpetrate the fraud, an indictment returned Jan. 28 alleges.
According to federal prosecutors, Lajewski, 53, fraudulently received millions in mortgage loans by making and causing to be made false representations to financial institutions about buyers' qualifications for loans.
The false representations concerned the buyers' employment history, income, assets, source of down payment, and intention to occupy the properties, the indictment states. In some instances, Lajewski falsely claimed the buyers were employed by his companies, authorities said.
The alleged scheme lasted from 2010 to 2016 and involved numerous properties on the South Side of Chicago, federal prosecutors said,
Facing multiple counts of financial institution fraud along with Lajewski are the two mortgage professionals, loan originator Agnieszka Siekowski, 46, of Northbrook, and loan processor Aldona Bobrowicz, 45, of Arlington Heights; and home remodeler Andrzej Bukowski, 66, formerly of Wheeling.
Arraignments for Siekowski and Bobrowicz are scheduled Friday in front of U.S. District Judge Martha M. Pacold. Arraignments for Lajewski and Bukowski have not yet been scheduled.
Each count of financial institution fraud is punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
The indictment was announced Tuesday by John R. Lausch, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Brad Geary, special agent-in-charge of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General.