Biden Commutes Sentence of 'Notorious Fraudster' Eric Bloom

President Joe Biden on Thursday commuted the sentences of two of the Chicago area’s most notorious fraudsters: former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell, who embezzled nearly $54 million from the tiny town to fund a lavish lifestyle, and Eric Bloom, the onetime leader of a Northbrook management firm who defrauded investors of more than $665 million.

The decisions in the clemency petitions for Crundwell and Bloom were announced by the White House as part of a massive list of some 39 pardons and 1,499 commutations. Biden’s orders do not wipe out their felony convictions, but end their sentences immediately.

Crundwell, 71, pleaded guilty in 2012 to what authorities then called the largest municipal fraud in the country’s history, admitting she stole $53.7 million from the city over more than a decade and used the money to finance her quarter horse business and lavish lifestyle.

[...] Bloom, meanwhile, the onetime head of Sentinel Management Group, was convicted by a jury in 2012 in what was billed by prosecutors at the time as the largest single financial fraud in the history of Chicago’s federal court.

Prosecutors alleged that as head of Sentinel, Bloom secretly began exposing his well-heeled customers to an increasingly risky mix of leveraged deals in 2003, leading to the company’s collapse four years later.

President Joe Biden on Thursday issued a commutation for former Albany investment broker Timothy M. McGinn, who was convicted along with David L. Smith more than a decade ago of defrauding hundreds of clients in a massive scheme that had wiped out the life savings for many of their victims.

[...] [Another fraudster commuted by Biden includes] Christopher Swartz, a 54-year-old former Watertown food and restaurant entrepreneur who was sentenced in 2017 to 150 months in federal prison for committing tax evasion and defrauding lenders and investors of more then $19 million.

“For over a decade, Mr. Swartz stole millions from lenders, investors, and the United States, using multiple schemes, shell companies and layers of transactions in an effort to escape detection,” acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Goldberg said at the time Swartz was sentenced. “His 12 ½ year sentence sends the clear message to those involved in such financial chicanery that their schemes — no matter how complex — will be uncovered, investigated and successfully prosecuted.”