A Chicago investment advisor was sentenced to three years in federal prison for defrauding a bank, as well as former Chicago Bulls basketball player Scottie Pippen and venture capitalist Robert Geras, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois announced Wednesday.
Robert J. Lunn was convicted of five counts of bank fraud for making a series of misrepresentations to Leaders Bank in Oak Brook, Ill., to obtain a line of credit and loans purportedly for the benefit of his business, Lunn Partners LLC.
The line of credit also was to benefit Pippen and Geras. Lunn said the two clients were aware of the loans he was obtaining for them when actually neither had any knowledge of the loans, the U.S. attorney said. Lunn used nearly all of the fraudulently obtained funds for his own benefit and to pay some of his other clients.
In addition to the 36-month sentence, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle ordered Lunn to pay restitution of more than $1.16 million to Leaders Bank, and $400,000 to Pippen.
“It is clear from the evidence that Lunn’s avarice knows no bounds,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth E. Yeadon and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard G. Stoltz said in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “He enriched himself by taking out the fraudulent loans and went to great lengths to conceal his crime from Leaders Bank, Mr. Pippen and Mr. Geras.”