Real Estate Broker Who Pilfered $145K In Homebuyers' Deposits From Escrow Account Dodges Hard Prison Time, Gets 4 Months In County Jail, 4 Years Probation, & Ordered To Pay Back Fleeced Victims

In DuPage County, Illinois, the Daily Herald reports:

• A Burr Ridge real estate agent, convicted of stealing potential homebuyers' earnest money, avoided prison time [] but will serve probation and 120 days in jail.
  
  A DuPage County jury convicted Harry "Bud" Simons in November of five counts of theft. He faced between four and 15 years in prison.
  
  Judge Robert Miller sentenced Simons to 48 months probation, 120 days in jail and ordered him to gain employment and pay $145,000 in restitution.(1)
  
  Assistant State's Attorney Diane Michalak said that between February 2013 and February 2014, Simons accepted earnest deposits totaling $145,300 from clients who wished to purchase homes being sold by his real estate agency, County Line RE/MAX in Burr Ridge.
  
  But once business slowed and the former Willowbrook resident began having trouble paying the agency's bills, prosecutors said, he began transferring money from the agency's escrow account that holds the buyers' earnest money into the agency's operating fund. In all, more than $239,000 was transferred among the accounts in 68 transactions.

For more, see Jail time, probation for real estate broker who stole clients' escrow money.

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(1) The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation administers a Real Estate Recovery Fund, which provides for a limited means of compensation for actual cash losses (as opposed to losses in property fair market value) suffered by anyone who, in connection with a real estate transaction, was screwed over by the fraudulent conduct of an Illinois licensed real estate agent, or a licensee's unlicensed employee. Reference: Illinois Real Estate Licensing Law, pp. 414-416. See also, 225 ILCS 454/20-85, et seq.