Former Glendale Heights attorney gets 6 years for stealing girlfriend's identity to defraud banks
A former attorney from Glendale Heights, Illinois was sentenced to six years in prison for stealing his girlfriend's identity and using it to defraud banks of tens of thousands of dollars.
The DuPage County State's Attorney charged Leonard DeFranco, 71, with 13 counts of identity theft, 26 counts of forgery, four counts of financial institution fraud, one count of continuing a financial crimes enterprise and two counts of obstruction of justice, all felonies.
DeFranco was accused of using his then-girlfriend's identity to secure four loans totaling over $82,000 between December 2, 2015 and June 8, 2017. The scheme was uncovered when the victim ran a credit report and discovered the loans, then called police.
During the course of their investigation, police discovered DeFranco also used her identity to purchase a $43,500 Audi A8. She also wasn't his only victim; at his sentencing hearing, prosecutors said DeFranco, through various schemes, had stolen nearly $850,000 from a dozen victims, his former girlfriend included.
DeFranco entered a blind guilty plea to one count of identity theft and appeared in court on March 28 for sentencing, where he was given six years in prison.