FORMER U.S DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY EMPLOYEE SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IDOC

WHEATON - DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett announced today that Vincent Arena, 52 (d.o.b. 10/31/1956) of 1070C Heritage Hill Drive, Naperville, was sentenced to four years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for defrauding the All Saints Catholic Academy in Naperville and several financial institutions out of more than $500,000.  In all, Arena pled guilty to Financial Institution Fraud, Wire Fraud and Forgery.  Arena entered his plea in front of Judge Blanche Fawell who handed down the sentence.

            Today’s sentence stems from allegations that in November, 2007, Arena, a National Bank Examiner for the United States Department of Treasury, created a fictitious check from a financial institution in Rosemont, Illinois.  Arena then forged the signature of the financial institution’s president and issued the check to All Saints Catholic Academy to assist in the renovation of a campus building.  Upon realizing the check was counterfeit, officials at All Saints Catholic Academy contacted the State’s Attorney’s Office.  An investigation into the matter resulted in the charges against Arena involving All Saints Catholic Academy.  Additional charges were also filed against Arena involving several financial institutions approximately one year earlier in which Arena, devised a scheme to obtain money by means of false representations.  Arena allegedly transmitted by wire a forged court order with a DuPage County case number representing that he was awarded a judgment for $805,000; this forged document was then presented to a finance corporation in conjunction with a residential home loan, which was then approved in an amount in excess of $500,000.

“Mr. Arena manipulated financial documents and altered official court documents in an attempt to line his pockets and purchase a home at the expense of others,” commented Birkett.  “His illicit schemes eventually caught up with him however.  As I have said before, white collar crime is not a victimless crime.  Through his actions, Mr. Arena caused financial hardship to several financial institutions as well as officials at All Saints Catholic Academy who were in reality relying on non-existent funds to finance repairs to their facility.  I would like to thank Assistant State’s Attorney Helen Kapas-Erdman and Dave Hamm from my Investigations unit for their work on this very complicated case.”

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