Long Grove, Illinois former bank VP charged with fraud

A Long Grove man and former bank executive has been charged with fraudulently obtaining a line of credit that resulted in a $2.4 million loss. Francis Alan Schmitz, 58, a former vice president with the Northern Trust Co. until the mid-'90s, was arrested Thursday and charged in U.S. District Court in Chicago with mail fraud, which carries a maximum of 30 years in prison, a $1 million fine and mandatory restitution. He was ordered held pending a detention hearing set for Tuesday.
According to the complaint, Schmitz worked with a loan broker early last year to arrange a $2.85 million line of credit through the First Midwest Bank by maintaining he was going to put it into investment properties in Long Grove. The complaint accuses him of producing account statements supposedly supplied by a Florida trust company, but which he actually produced himself and sent from a mail-drop facility in Arlington Heights.
When he received the line of credit, the complaint says, he put $350,000 in an escrow account, but used the rest to pay off a $1.6 million defaulted loan and make other payments, while putting $380,000 in his personal bank account.
According to the complaint, Schmitz went on to file a voluntary bankruptcy petition late last year.