A former chairman of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board is suing his onetime bankruptcy attorney for allegedly under-reporting his state salary and forging his signature on bankruptcy documents, which he said cost him his job with the board, the Cook County (Ill.) Record reported yesterday. Adam Monreal lodged a suit in Cook County Circuit Court against lawyer Al-Haroon Bin Asad Husain and Husain’s law firm, Himont Law Group. Monreal’s two-count suit alleges that Husain committed legal malpractice and unjust enrichment. Monreal has worked as a Cook County assistant state’s attorney, an aide to the Chicago mayor for public safety and as head of the Illinois Department of Insurance Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit. In 2010, then-Gov. Pat Quinn tapped Monreal to chair the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. Monreal consulted with Husain in early 2011 about filing for bankruptcy and said he “trusted” Husain. Monreal hired Husain, paid a flat fee and turned financial records over to him for use in preparing the bankruptcy filing. According to Monreal, Husain did not properly review the records, but went ahead and filed the bankruptcy papers in May 2011. Monreal alleged that Husain did not go over the papers with him before filing them, and allegedly forged Monreal’s signature. Monreal’s bankruptcy case wrapped up in August 2011. It later came to light that Monreal’s bankruptcy filing listed a significantly lower state salary than he actually earned, forcing Monreal to resign from the prisoner review board in October 2015. Monreal blamed the inaccurate figure on Husain.
