Wheeling Businessman Accused Of Bilking $3M In Scam: Authorities

CHICAGO — A Chicagoland real estate developer is among four people accused of participating in a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded financial institutions out of at least $3 million, according to court documents released Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois.

Andrzej Lajewski, 53, formerly of Wheeling, who owned the Des Plaines-based Highland Consulting Corp., was indicted by a grand jury for scheming with two mortgage professionals and the owner of a remodeling company. Also named in the filing are Agnieszka Siekowski, 46, a loan originator from Northbrook, Aldona Bobrowicz, 45, a loan processor from Arlington Heights, and Andrzej Bukowski, a home remodeler and formerly of Wheeling.

Lajewski also owned Chicago-based Quality Management and Remodeling Inc.

According to the indictment returned Jan. 28 in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the group fraudulently obtained at millions in mortgage loans by making, and causing to be made, materially false representations to financial institutions regarding the buyers’ qualifications for the loans. The false representations concerned the buyers’ employment history, income, assets, source of down payment, and intention to occupy the properties, the indictment states.

In some instances, Lajewski is accused of fraudulently claimed to lenders that the buyers were employed by his companies — even though he knew that was untrue — to help the buyers qualify for the mortgage loans, the indictment states.

The alleged fraud scheme lasted from 2010 to 2016 and involved numerous properties on the South Side of Chicago.

Arraignments for Siekowski and Bobrowicz are scheduled for Friday, while arraignments for Lajewski and Bukowski have not yet been scheduled.