CALIFORNIA MAN GETS 12 YEARS FOR FINANCIAL CRIMES IN DU PAGE

WHEATON – DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett announced today that former Anaheim California resident Faramarz Kiasi, 48 (d.o.b. 11/25/59), was sentenced to twelve years in the Illinois department of Corrections after a jury found him guilty of operating a large scale bank fraud network in DuPage County and the Chicagoland area.  On February 22, 2008, Kiasi was convicted of one count of Organizing a Continuing Financial Crimes Enterprise, a Class X Felony and two counts of Forgery, a Class 3 Felony.  Kiasi is the last of five defendants who were charged in the case to be sentenced. 

              In March of 2006, members of the Naperville Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit began an investigation into a large scale bank fraud that occurred in Naperville and the surrounding Chicagoland area.  The investigation showed that in January of 2006 Kiasi and his co-defendants, also from California, opened multiple checking accounts at several banking intuitions in the Chicagoland area.  The accounts were allegedly opened utilizing assumed business names and stolen identities from California residents. After several weeks the defendants allegedly began depositing counterfeit checks into the accounts and later withdrawing cash.  After allegedly obtaining approximately $212,000, the group left the Chicago area and returned to California.

            In June, 2006, Naperville police officers traveled to California and arrested Kiasi and his co-defendants; Jennifer DuBois, 33 (d.o.b. 12/15/74), of Hollywood California, Kimberly Lebo, 25 (d.o.b. 1/15/83), of Manhattan Beach California, Gary Young, 27 (d.o.b. 2/16/81), of Highland California and Robert Betor, 29 (d.o.b. 7/10/78), of Rialto California.  Kiasi’s co-defendants were each charged with and plead guilty to Continuing a Financial Crimes Enterprise.  For their part in the scheme, Lebo and Young each received four months in the DuPage County Jail and 24 months probation.  DuBois and Betor each received four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

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