A former Chicago lawyer was accused Thursday of swindling acouple out of more than $1 million by falsely claiming he had boughtthem a Lake Shore Drive building and resold it to Donald Trump at a100 percent profit.
But Robert Carrane, 58, never purchased the building at 219 E.Lake Shore because he could not obtain the financing and never talkedto Trump about it, according to criminal charges.
The bogus sale was one of four alleged fraud schemes totaling$2.796 million listed in a four-count criminal information againstCarrane.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheila Finnegan said Carrane is expectedto plead guilty in the case, as well as to a separate charge ofdefrauding the Kempton (Ill.) State Bank of $225,000.
Carrane, of Kenilworth, once was owner and chairman of theKempton bank. He voluntarily disbarred himself as an Illinoisattorney in March after the Attorneys Registration and DisciplinaryCommittee accused him of stealing money from a client's estate, saidJames Grogan, counsel to the committee.
Thursday's charges include allegations Carrane obtained $250,000from one couple in 1982 by telling them he would assign them 50percent interest in a building at 1004-1008 N. Clark, which he neverdid. In 1986, the same couple gave Carrane $1.1 million to buy abuilding at 219 E. Lake Shore, and a second couple gave another$20,000 for a 1 percent share, the complaint charged.
Carrane allegedly obtained an additional $406,000 from thefirst couple and $20,000 from the second in 1988 to buy the LawsonYMCA. The couples later learned he never bought the YMCA, thecomplaint charged.
Carrane also was accused of stealing $100,000 from an estatebetween 1988 and 1992 and of fraudulently obtaining $1.15 million inloans from two banks from 1987 to 1990.
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