Chicago Area Defendant Charged in $3.7 Million Bank Fraud Scheme

The owner of a Chicago-based residential property development company was charged yesterday with defrauding the State Bank of Countryside of approximately $3.7 million in connection with loans for the development of property in the West Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago. Seth M. Harris, 38, of Chicago, was charged in a single-count information filed in U.S. District Court, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago, announced. Harris was the owner of SMH Development, LLC, of Chicago, a residential property development company which specialized in the construction of single-family homes, primarily in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. If convicted, a bank fraud conviction is a felony and carries maximum penalties of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000, or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offense. Posted in: Deposit Account Fraud