Legal Justice
Lawyer sentenced for hiding brother’s chapter belongings in lawyer belief account
Jan R. Kowalski of LaGrange, Illinois, 59, was sentenced following her responsible plea final 12 months for serving to her brother Robert M. Kowalski disguise cash in 2018. Picture from Shutterstock.
A suspended Chicago-area lawyer was sentenced Tuesday to 37 months in jail for utilizing her lawyer belief account to assist her brother conceal greater than $357,000 from collectors in chapter.
Jan R. Kowalski of LaGrange, Illinois, 59, was sentenced following her responsible plea final 12 months for serving to her brother Robert M. Kowalski disguise the cash in 2018, report the Chicago Tribune, Law360 and the Chicago Sun-Times.
A Division of Justice press launch is here.
Prosecutors mentioned Jan Kowalski tried to cover the scheme by fabricating paperwork and making false assertion to the federal chapter court docket.
Jan Kowalski and Robert Kowalski have been positioned on an interim suspension in 2021, in response to the Illinois State Bar Association.
Robert Kowalski was convicted earlier this 12 months for conspiring with the previous president of the Washington Federal Financial institution for Financial savings to take out collateral-free loans and conceal belongings and revenue in chapter. He pleaded responsible to fees that embrace chapter fraud, embezzlement and conspiracy. The financial institution collapsed in 2017 after a dedication that it was bancrupt and had not less than $66 million in nonperforming loans.
A 3rd sibling, William Kowalski, has entered right into a deferred prosecution settlement and is cooperating with prosecutors. He admitted that he and Robert Kowalski embezzled about $190,0000 to purchase a ship that they named after a spell within the Harry Potter e-book collection.
The financial institution president, John Gembara, apparently killed himself in a suburban Chicago residence in December 2017.
Jan Kowalski had sought probation as a result of she takes care of her aged mom and her 30-year-old son for whom she has guardianship.
“My mom and father had three youngsters, and all three of us are indicted and going to jail, in all probability,” she advised U.S. District Choose Virginia Kendall of the Northern District of Illinois. “And now there isn’t any one to look after my mom.”
Kendall replied that “you have been partaking on this exercise once they have been all adults and in want of assist from you.”
Jan Kowalski will even should pay $357,492 in restitution.
