Former Chicago real estate exec convicted of lying about assets in bankruptcy filing

A former Chicago real estates executive is facing up to five years in federal prison for hiding assets in a bankruptcy filing.

Brett Immel, 38, was convicted Monday by a federal jury in Chicago of fraudulently concealing income and bank accounts in his 2009 bankruptcy petition, according to the U.S. State’s Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois.

In October 2009, Immel and his wife filed for joint Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Illinois and sought to discharge more than $6 million in debts, prosecutors said.

In his financial disclosures, Immel disclosed only a personal checking account that he was no longer using, prosecutors said. It held about $1,000.

Meanwhile, Immel had been depositing thousands of dollars a month into two other accounts that he failed to list in his bankruptcy filing, prosecutors said.

One account belong to Hanover Services, a Chicago real estate investment firm he worked for, prosecutors said. The other was an account for Fourteen Consulting, a business that Immel created and owned.

Immel used those two undisclosed accounts to pay nearly all of his personal expenses, including a home mortgage, lease payments on a luxury car, furniture purchases, shopping at high-end clothing stores, child and pet care expenses, and groceries, prosecutors said.

The state’s attorney’s office showed evidence at trial that Immel continued to use the concealed bank accounts after the bankruptcy filing, prosecutors said. Immel had also failed to disclose the true income he made from Hanover Services and Fourteen Consulting, prosecutors said.

Immel, a former resident of Chicago, now lives in Des Moines, Iowa, prosecutors said. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.