Crime & Safety
'Trailblazing' Cook County Judge Indicted on Fraud Charges
Jessica Arong O'Brien accused of procuring fraudulently obtained bank loans for purchase and sale of properties on Chicago's South Side.
CHICAGO, IL -- A Cook County Circuit Court judge has been indicted in an alleged scheme where she and an accomplice intentionally misled lenders to obtain loans for the purchase, maintenance and sale of properties on Chicago’s South Side.
Judge Jessica Arong O’Brien, 49, and Maria Bartko, 49, both of Chicago, were both indicted by a grand jury with count of mail fraud affecting a financial institution. O’Brien was also charged with one count of bank fraud.
O’Brien was a special assistant Illinois attorney general for the Illinois Department of Revenue, and worked part-time as a loan officer for Amronbanc Mortgage Corp. in Lincolnwood, when the scheme was in play from 2004 to 2007, according to the indictment.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that O’Brien made false representations and concealed information when procuring approximately $1.4 million in mortgage and commercial loans. O’Brien used the proceeds to purchase an investment properties in Chicago located in the 600 block of West 46th Street and a the 800 block of West 54th St.
O’Brien then fraudulently obtained a commercial line of credit maintain the properties before selling them to Bartko and an unnamed straw buyer, the U.S. Attorney said. O’Brien is said to have known that Bartko would fraudulently obtain mortgage loans.
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O’Brien was lauded as a courtroom trailblazer when she became a judge in 2012, after she ran unopposed in the democratic primary. She is assigned to Cook County’s 1st Municipal District in the Richard J. Daley Building. In 2015, she was sworn in as the first Asian American president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois.
The women are set to be arraigned on April 20 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheila M. Finnegan. Mail fraud affecting a financial institution and bank fraud are each punishable by a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
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