Crime & Safety
Park Ridge Accountant Who Swindled Cubs, Cancer Patient Sentenced To 6 Months
Joseph Gurdak, 73, used money from one of the scams to pay off credit cards and buy toy trains, prosecutors claimed.
CHICAGO, IL — A 73-year-old Park Ridge accountant was sentenced to six months in prison after he admitted to helping swindle nearly $250,000 from the Chicago Cubs, as well as embezzling more than $350,000 from a client with breast cancer and using that money to pay off credit cards and add to his toy train collection, the Chicago Sun-times reports.
Joseph Gurdak pleaded guilty in July to mail fraud and filing a false tax return stemming from the scams. Gurdak's age was the federal judge's reason for handing down the light sentence, according to the report.
In his plea, Gurdak confessed to helping Marc Hamid, the former co-owner of Wrigley Field rooftop venue Skybox on Sheffield, falsify royalty statements with the Cubs, claiming lower attendances for Skybox from 2007 to 2015, the report stated. Those phony statements bilked around $245,000 out of the Cubs, with prosecutors attributing $127,552 of that to Gurdak, the report added.
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In January, Hamid was sentenced to 18 months after he was convicted on four counts of mail fraud and five counts of illegally structuring bank transactions, the report stated. A third man — Richard Zasiebida, an ex-suburban cop — also was implicated in the scam, and his sentencing is set for March 15, the report added.
In a separate scheme, Gurdak admitted to embezzling $358,000 from longtime client Christine Shaw, the report stated. Prosecutors claim he used that money pay credit card bills and buy toy trains at hobby stores, the report added.
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According to prosecutors, Gurdak also convinced Shaw to loan $300,000 to Hamid to renovate the Skybox, which wasn't true, the report stated. Hamid was indicted soon after that, and Shaw had a forensic audit run, which uncovered the financial wrongdoing, the report added.
Gurdak's lawyer said his client has repaid Shaw, and he plans to cover her $200,000 in attorney fees, according to the report.
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