WHITE COLLAR THIEF GETS THE MAX

WHEATON - DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett announced today that Judge George Bakalis sentenced Frank Devine, 57 (d.o.b. 4/03/49) of Oswego, to 15 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for stealing more than $500,000 from 24 DuPage County residents through an elaborate Ponzi scheme.

Through his place of employment, The Professional Financial Service Group, 184 Shuman Blvd., Naperville, Devine sold promissory notes on a car investment scheme where investors invested $15,000 to $21,500 per car.  For their investment, Devine promised a return of $3,000 within 14 to 18 weeks.  Devine would then use the principal of the investment towards the purchase of another vehicle.  An investigation however, by the Wheaton Police Department and the Illinois Securities Department, revealed that Devine failed to purchase any vehicles and kept all the collected funds for his own personal use spending more than $1.6 million on personal expenses such as country club expenses, restaurants, travel and furniture and more than $660,000 in cash withdrawals.  Devine also used a second scheme in which he collected money from his victims claiming that he was going to invest the money in an initial public offering of Devine Interventions stock.  Again, Devine collected the money from his victims and never invested it.  In all, Devine’s schemes claimed 79 victims from Illinois, Maryland, Georgia and Florida with total loss to his victims of nearly $3 million dollars. 

On February 3, 2006, Devine entered a blind guilty plea to Theft of Property over $500,000, a non-probationable Class 1 Felony punishable by 4-15 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.  In addition to the maximum sentenced handed down today, Devine was sentenced on March 24, 2006 to thirteen years in prison on federal charges of wire fraud stemming from his schemes.

“Through his crimes Mr. Devine stole money from 79 people in four states,” commented Birkett.  “He stole money from the young and old.  He stole money from disabled persons.  Mr. Devine is nothing more than a financial predator.  He stole money from people who made the honest mistake of trusting someone they thought was trying to help them.  But instead of honoring the trust given to him, he chose to line his pockets with their money.”  Birkett went on to praise the law enforcement agencies involved in this case.  “I would like to applaud Detective Dave Zdan of the Wheaton Police Department and William Harmening of the Illinois Securities Department for their invaluable assistance in solving this case.  I would also like to commend Assistant State’s Attorney Ken Tatarelis on preparing such an excellent case against Mr. Devine which led to his blind plea and today’s sentencing.”

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