Oak Parker to plead guilty to bank fraud

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Updated: February 20, 2012 8:48AM

Oak Park resident Stephen Iwerebon will plead guilty Feb. 29, to at least one of seven federal bank fraud charges related to a 2009 real estate fraud indictment.

In 2009, Iwerebon, 46, was one of seven people charged with real estate fraud against banks and other lending institutions between 2004 and 2008. The alleged fraud involved 120 houses and cost lenders more than $16 million in losses.

Federal prosecutors lodged seven criminal counts against Iwerebon, alleging his Minta Development Corp. used falsified documents and checks to make purchases and resales of numerous homes on Chicago’s south side. Prosecutors allege that the losses on those transactions totaled in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Iwerebon entered a change of plea motion Dec. 14. He faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each count, though such plea agreements typically require defendants to admit guilt in just one count.

The alleged master-mind of the fraud conspiracy, Kenneth Steward, 45, of South Holland, pleaded guilty in a blind plea in August. He was subsequently sentenced to more than 17 years in prison and ordered to pay $13,122,950 in restitution.

Steward, who is currently in prison, is appealing that sentence.

Minta Development, previously known as Minta Rehab, was involuntarily dissolved by the state in September 2010. In June a two story frame house owned by Iwerebon’s wife, Irene, went into foreclosure after being hit with a $291,484 IRS tax lien.