-----Original Message-----Date:
Saturday, October 21, 2000 9:48 AMSubject: Intrust defendants
take the Fifth
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Intrust defendants take the Fifth
Saturday, October 21,
2000
By Mike NolanBusiness
Writer
Two men accused of stealing millions of dollars belonging
to customers of Independent Trust Corp. have invoked their Fifth
Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Frankfort real estate attorney Laurence Capriotti and south
suburban developer Jack Hargrove took the Fifth in response to
charges outlined in a June 1 lawsuit that seeks to recoup money
allegedly stolen by the men and companies they controlled.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Intrust's receiver, alleges in that
suit that Capriotti and Hargrove were involved in a years-long
scheme to steal Intrust customer funds.
The accounting and consulting firm is attempting to recover $68.1
million in missing money. PricewaterhouseCoopers has also filed
claims on insurance policies Intrust carried.
Both Capriotti and Hargrove filed their responses to the lawsuit
in Cook County Circuit Court on Wednesday. Earlier this month, Judge
Sidney Jones III denied motions filed by the men seeking to have the
lawsuit dismissed.
That the two opted to invoke the Fifth rather than deny the
charges was a surprising development. Attorneys for Capriotti and
Hargrove had steadfastly denied for months that the men were
involved in any theft of funds.
Attorneys representing Capriotti and Hargrove could not be
reached for comment on Friday.
A third defendant, Alan Hurwick, had previously filed a response
to the lawsuit and also invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.
Capriotti and Hargrove were president and secretary,
respectively, of Intercounty Title Co. of Illinois. Throughout much
of the 1990s, Intrust turned over millions of dollars of customer
assets to Intercounty, which was supposed to invest the money,
according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers lawsuit.
But rather than invest the money, Capriotti and Hargrove
appropriated the money for their own use, the lawsuit alleges. To
cover up the theft, Intercounty officials, including Hurwick, the
firm's chief financial officer, created phony bank statements
showing that the money transferred by Intrust was earning interest
at LaSalle National Bank, the lawsuit contends.
Intrust, 15255 S. 94th Ave., was taken over by state regulators
in April after the shortage was discovered. At the time it was
placed in receivership, Intrust managed about $1.7 billion in trust
assets belonging to about 17,500 customers.
Capriotti and Hargrove are also named as defendants in a lawsuit
filed in September by Fidelity National Title Insurance Co. of New
York.
The nation's biggest title insurance company alleges that
Capriotti and Hargrove were involved in the theft of at least $35
million belonging to customers of Intercounty National Title
Insurance Co.
Fidelity alleges that the money was stolen from an escrow account
managed by ITI Enterprises Inc., a company controlled by Capriotti
and Hargrove. ITI Enterprises is also a defendant in the lawsuit
filed by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of Intrust.
The escrow account held money meant to cover real estate closing
costs, and millions of dollars flowed through the account every
month, according to the lawsuit. Fidelity claims that the account
was "used as a personal checkbook" by Capriotti, Hargrove
and companies they controlled.
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