Nov. 24--A real estate agent who admitted taking money from his agency's escrow account, but said he did it to keep the business afloat, was found guilty Monday of theft, according to DuPage County prosecutors.
After hearing closing arguments and deliberating about an hour, jurors Monday returned a guilty verdict against Harry G. Simons, 49, of Willowbrook.
Authorities accused Simons of stealing more than $145,000 from the ReMax County Line agency in Burr Ridge he managed. The money, they said, came from an escrow account used to hold funds in pending real estate transactions, such as earnest money.
Simons took money dozens of times over a two-year period beginning in 2012, and was initially able to maintain the account balance by using new money that would come in so he could make good on older obligations, Assistant State's Attorney Diane Michalak told jurors at the trial's outset.
Eventually though, authorities alleged, Simons fell behind, and he owed clients almost $150,000 by the time he abruptly closed the business in February 2014.
Simons attorney, John Paul Carroll, told jurors that Simons was not a thief, but merely a bad businessman making a desperate bid to keep his agency open. Carroll admitted that Simons did transfer money out of the escrow account, but said he intended to repay it.
As the trial got under way last week, a former sales agent for Simons testified that he and Simons had met at the agency's bank about a week after Simons closed the doors on the realty business. The agent said Simons was supposed to transfer more than $100,000 that was being held on two pending deals, but Simons admitted that the escrow funds were gone.
"All of a sudden he said 'I can't do this anymore. There's no money,'" the agent, Robert Briant, said.
Prosecutors also said that Simons admitted the thefts to police following his arrest, and that "it got easier" as time went by.
He faces a prison sentence of four to 15 years. Judge Robert Miller, who presided over the trial, set a status date of Jan. 4.
DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin released a statement after the verdict, calling the case against Simons one "of greed, plain and simple."
"Instead of helping his clients with that would probably be the largest purchase of their lives, Mr. Simons decided to steal from them," Berlin said. "Without batting an eye, he took the hard-earned money and kept it for himself."
Clifford Ward is a freelance reporter.
