Federal prosecutors charged a former assistant vice president of Parkway Bank of Harwood Heights on Wednesday with embezzling nearly $500,000 from a client whose credit accounts he supervised.
Jeffrey Suspenzi, the son of Parkway Bank Chairman Rocco Suspenzi, also was charged with filing false income tax returns in 2000 and 2001.
His lawyer, Thomas Breen, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
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Suspenzi, 34, of South Elgin, persuaded a client to consolidate and increase a $1 million line of credit at the bank to $1.5 million, prosecutors said. Suspenzi told the client, who was not identified, that the extra credit was needed for business purposes when Suspenzi really wanted it for his personal use, prosecutors said.
On 18 occasions in 2000 and 2001, Suspenzi withdrew more than $497,000 from his client’s account, prosecutors said.
Those same years, he reported that he earned $261,922 and $115,852 respectively, when he knew he made substantially more money, prosecutors said.
Suspenzi allegedly authorized cashier’s checks to be written on the client’s account.
Prosecutors said he concealed the scheme by paying interest on the withdrawals and preventing bank employees from sending statements to the client.
In an earlier case, Suspenzi and his father were accused by the Illinois Gaming Board of secretly splitting an investment in the Emerald Casino. Last year they declined to testify about the matter. According to evidence submitted by the Gaming Board, the Suspenzis were involved in a secret contract with brothers Vito and Joseph Salamone to divide the latter’s $375,000 share in the casino. A preliminary FBI report stated Vito Salamone had associated with organized-crime figures.
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