Wheeler-dealer once tied to Outfit is on the lam after violating parole in $10 million fraud case

Lee Anglin and wife Jenni in 2018. | Sun-Times file

A colorful Chicago businessman on parole in a $10 million fraud case failed to report to prison late last month for parole violations and is now a federal fugitive, court records show.

Lee Anglin, 50, was freed in 2018 after serving about a dozen years in prison for running a real estate scam in the mid-2000s. His early investors got paid with money put in by later investors who were left with nothing, prosecutors said. The feds said Anglin bilked more than $10 million from his investors but he put their losses at about half that amount.

Anglin, in a wide-ranging interview with the Chicago Sun-Times in 2018, described his past as a debt collector for loansharks, a politically connected newspaper publisher, and a restaurant and bar owner in business with the Chicago Outfit.

He pledged to go back into business to make enough money to repay the victims of his real estate scheme.

But his new ventures have gotten him in trouble again.

He failed to tell his parole agent about several business deals he and his wife, Jenni, got involved with in Utah, prosecutors said. Some of their business partners complained the couple failed to comply with the terms of their contracts, according to court records.

Anglin was serving his parole in Chicago, while his wife lived in Utah.

Lee Anglin also got in trouble for doing legal work for inmates without permission — and without a law license. One inmate wrote to U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman complaining that he paid $24,000 to Anglin, who did “shoddy” legal work on his appeal.

Gettleman sentenced Anglin to six months in prison for those parole violations and ordered him to surrender by June 29. The U.S. Marshals Service is looking for him, according to a warrant for his arrest issued July 9.

The former Riviera Country Club in Orland Park.

In addition to the Utah ventures, Anglin’s wife operates a sports and dining complex on 143rd Street in Orland Park, according to Fletcher Handford, who says he’s in charge of its daily affairs. The complex reopened in June after closing under a previous owner during the coronavirus pandemic.

Previously called the Riviera Country Club, the facility has tennis and basketball courts and a swimming pool, and its banquet hall is under renovation, Handford says. He says the plans for the complex include a restaurant called Jenni’s Country Grill & Saloon.

Handford says Jenni Anglin is the president of the Orland Park business. He says he was told the Anglins are separated and that Lee Anglin isn’t involved in the venture. But a Facebook post in May, signed by “Lee & Jenni,” said they planned to invest “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in the complex. Jenni Anglin couldn’t be reached for comment.

The Orland Park venture isn’t among the deals mentioned in court records involving Lee Anglin’s parole violation. The U.S. attorney’s office declined comment.

Contributing: Jon Seidel

A May 24 Facebook post about the Orland Park complex.