Wife Wants $20,000 Bond Loan Back and Divorce

It was a loan made for love, but one that soon led to regret, a court battle and pending divorce.

Two years ago, Purevsuren Sarangerel loaned her then boyfriend Donald Lukens of Chicago the $20,000 he said he needed to post bond. At the time, he had been arrested for allegedly embezzling $225,000 from Wilmette resident Marietta Egen.

Sarangerel, who is from Mongolia, married Lukens in August 2010. The relationship soon went sour and she never saw the money returned. Prosecutors say she’s not the first girlfriend that Lukens bilked — he was dating Egens when he’s accused of taking her money. He is facing two felony charges of theft by deception in the case.

Last week Sarangerel filed for divorce and Wednesday she was in court asking for her money. Egens showed up in court to support her.

“He called me from jail and told me he was in trouble,” Sarangerel recounted from the witness stand through a translator, of the day Lukens asked for the loan. “He asked for the bail money and said in a month’s time, when he was out, he’d pay it back.”

Lukens’ demeanor changed when his estranged wife took the stand. He had been sitting confidently, leaning back with his arm draped across the back of a courtroom bench. When Sarangerel started testifying, the 60-year-old Lukens leaned forward and started to shake his head.

In light of Sarangerel’s testimony, Cook County Judge Timonthy Chambers ruled that the $20,000 bond would be revoked and that Lukens would be put under 24/7 house arrest. 

“This money had been attained under inappropriate circumstances,” Chambers said. “He made a promise of returning the money in a month and that has turned into years.”

“I don’t think he should be out free on her money.”

A Love Gone Sour
Lukens met Sarangerel, who then resided in Indiana, in 2008 at an event in Millenium Park. In December 2009, after roughly 16 months of dating, Lukens was charged with allegedly embezzling $225,000 from Wilmette resident Marietta Egen, according to The Ventura County Star.

Several days later, Sarangerel, a doctor, withdrew $10,000 from her U.S. bank account and another $10,000 an account in Mongolia to post Lukens' bond.

After his release in January 2010, Sarangerel and Lukens continued to date, eventually marrying in August 2010. Sarangerel and her daughter moved into Lukens’ Chicago apartment where they lived for a year, she told the court. While he paid the $2,000 a month in rent, Sarangerel said she paid for all other living expenses.

Sarangerel testified that she continued to ask for her money back from the time of Lukens’ release, but never received it. Eventually the couple signed a promissory agreement that the funds would be returned by March.

In the meantime, Lukens would make promises that the couple would move to California and live in a big mansion once his case with Egens was finished, Sarangerel said. But, as of 2008, Lukens’ main source of income was “a $5,000-a-month disability policy,” The Ventura County Star reported.

But constant court proceedings and financial strains caused their relationship to breakdown, she told authorities. On Aug. 24 she filed for divorce and pursued further legal action for the bond reimbursement.

Initially Chambers ruled for Lukens’ to procure a “fresh $20,000,” but in an effort to prevent Lukens being sent to jail, his attorney, Damon Cheronis, posed two alternatives: either have Sarangerel's money maintained as bond and returned at the end of Lukens' trialor reduce the matters to an I-bond. Sarangerel would not agree to the former, while Chambers refused to grant the latter.

Eventually, the decision was reached that Lukens' will be under upgraded house arrest, only allowed to leave for lawyer visits, as well as doctor visits regarding a mental health condition for which he was receiving disability payments until recently. Additionally, the bond money would be returned to Sarengerel.

After the hearing, Sarangerel said she plans to use the money to put her daughter through school. For now the bond money will be held by the Cook County Clerk's office, according to Chambers.

Egen To Have Day in Court

Meanwhile Lukens will return to court Oct. 24 with the potential to go to trial for allegedly defrauding Egens.

“He just saw something in us to take advantage of,” Egens, who attended Wednesday’s hearing, said. “Money is gone and I’ll never get it back, but it’s all about this woman now.”

According to the Ventura County Star, Egen met Lukens in 2006 through Match.com. The now 54-year-old Wilmette woman worked in a medical office at the time and had inherited money when her husband died of cancer in 1987. She had wired Lukens a total of $225,000 between 2006 and 2007.

Meanwhile, during Wednesday's hearing, Egen sat in the back, chatting with Sarangerel before she testified. While the state's attorney questioned Sarangerel, Cheronis requested the the judge have Egen leave the courtroom.

"She's bothering my client and giggling," Cheronis said.

Egen listened to the hearing from outside the court, waiting to continue to assist Sarangerel.

She joined the lawyers representing Sarangerel after the hearing ended.

“I hope they take him."

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