A former Chicago real estate executive is facing up to five years in federal prison for hiding assets in a bankruptcy filing, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Brett Immel was convicted on Aug. 26 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. 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.
