United States v. Intini

18 F. App'x 411
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 5, 2001
DocketNo. 00-2906
StatusPublished

This text of 18 F. App'x 411 (United States v. Intini) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Intini, 18 F. App'x 411 (7th Cir. 2001).

Opinion

ORDER

The district court revoked Anthony Inti-ni’s federal probation after finding that he willfully failed to make restitution to one of his crime victims. Intini appeals, arguing that the district court lacked jurisdiction to revoke his probation, violated his due process rights by delaying his revocation hearing for over five years, and erroneously concluded that his failure to make restitution was willful. We affirm.

Intini is a former attorney who was disbarred by the State of Illinois in 1986 for committing crimes involving moral turpitude. In 1990 a federal grand jury indicted him on nine counts of mail fraud stemming from his embezzlement of settlement funds owned by former clients Eleanor Hurt and Stanley Golab. Intini pleaded guilty to two of the counts, and was sentenced on one to a three-year term of imprisonment and on the other to a consecutive two-year term of probation. As a condition of Intini’s probation, the district court ordered that he restore $250,000 to Hurt and $35,000 to Golab. Intini reported to prison on October 11,1991, and, with accumulated good-time, was released on October 29,1993.

During Intini’s criminal proceedings Hurt sued Intini for professional malpractice in Illinois court and won a $700,000 judgment. She attempted to enforce the [413]*413judgment by taking title to his Oak Brook, Illinois, home, but Intini put up a fight. First, he twice attempted to vacate the judgment. The state court rejected both attacks, and, realizing that Intini was unlikely to voluntarily surrender the property, delivered itself the deed to Intini’s home to Hurt. Next, Intini filed for bankruptcy to automatically stay enforcement of the judgment. Hurt succeeded in getting the automatic stay lifted, but Intini still refused to surrender the house. Hurt then obtained a forcible entry and detainer order from the state court, and the Sheriff seized Intini’s house and delivered possession to Hurt. Hurt, who was 80 years old at the time, intended to sell the house to satisfy part of the judgment. Unfortunately for her, the house was in extremely poor physical condition, and its title was clouded by tax and homeowner association liens. Hurt’s real estate agent told her that the house was unmarketable. Hurt borrowed a substantial amount of money from her attorneys for renovations and incurred additional legal fees removing the liens. Once the house was in saleable shape and unencumbered, Hurt sold it for $360,000. But after deducting commissions, loan payments, and attorneys’ fees, she netted just $129,000.

In August 1995, shortly after Hurt sold the house, Intini petitioned the district court to declare his restitution obligation satisfied. The government opposed the motion, contending that the proceeds from the sale of the house, even if deemed partial satisfaction of Intini’s order of restitution to Hurt, were not enough to satisfy the entire amount. The government also pointed out that Intini had made no restitution to Golab. The district court conducted a hearing on October 10, 1995. There, Intini admitted making no restitution to Golab, which prompted an order directing him to show cause why his probation should not be revoked or modified for nonpayment. The court set the revocation hearing for November 8, 1995, and warned Intini that if he failed to appear he would be arrested. The government was concerned, however, that Intini’s probationary period might expire by the end of October 1995, and requested that the district court schedule the hearing in October. The district court declined, noting that its Rule to Show Cause would toll the running of Initini’s probation.

At the November 8 hearing, Intini announced that he had recently placed $35,000 in his attorney’s client trust account for immediate payment to Golab. Intini told the court that his “business partner,” Alan Little, had given him the money to pay Golab. Without directing Intini to do anything with the money, however, the district court told the government to proceed with the hearing. Kim Masini, Intini’s probation officer, testified first. Masini reported that to the best of her knowledge Intini had made no restitution to Golab and none to Hurt apart from the proceeds of the house. Intini had told her that following his release from prison he worked for Angelic Creations, a doll business his wife operated from a storefront below her home. Although Intini claimed that his wife largely supported him and that he did not receive a formal income or regular paycheck, he told Masini that on balance his wife gave him about $580 a month from her business income, which he estimated was equivalent to a minimum-wage salary. Intini also had disclosed to Masini that he had an “interest” in Waterford Development Corporation, a real estate development company, but Ma-sini did not know the extent of Intini’s interest in Waterford.

The government then proffered that In-tini’s unreported interest in Waterford was a controlling block of stock worth approximately $6,000,000. Additionally, Ariel [414]*414Weissberg, Intini’s attorney, had told government investigators in a September 1995 letter that Intini had successfully obtained mortgages exceeding $5,000,000 on a parcel of real estate owned by Waterford. The government asserted that it would defy common sense for a bank to lend that much money to a man working for minimum wage in a doll shop, and accordingly argued that Intini was hiding assets from Hurt and Golab. The government also alleged that in 1995 Intini purchased an expensive car but had not disclosed that information to his probation officer.

Intini then testified. He first described Alan Little as a Waterford shareholder who sought Intini’s help as an independent contractor in an unrelated real estate venture. Rather than paying Intini a fee for his consulting services, Little instead agreed to help Intini make restitution by giving him $35,000 to satisfy his obligation to Golab. Intini stated that before the revocation hearing his probation officer refused the tender of the money because he could not verify that it came from a legitimate source. Regarding his interest in Waterford, Intini told the court that he purchased 700 of the 900 outstanding shares of Waterford’s stock in August 1995 from six shareholders for $1.00 per share in August 1995, but the board of directors and minority shareholders refused to call a meeting in order to prevent Intini from taking control of the board. Intini had directed Weissberg to file a lawsuit against Waterford on his behalf to compel it to hold an annual meeting. Regarding his alleged purchase of a car, Intini told the court that Alan Little, who apart from his involvement with Waterford also ran a car dealership with his brother Gary, had lent him a 1993 Jeep, and that the Jeep was titled in Little’s name.

Next, Intini testified that it was his belief that his restitution obligation had been completely satisfied by the proceeds from Hurt’s sale of his house. In his motion to declare his restitution order satisfied, Inti-ni declared that the state court order granting the $700,000 malpractice judgment to Hurt had directed her to give Golab Ms share of the restitution from whatever assets she could find to satisfy the judgment. Intini also claimed that he owed Hurt nothing because she sold Ms former house for $10,000 more than Ms order of restitution, and that Hurt’s expenses towards maMng the house marketable should not be set off against the selling price of the house.

But on cross-examination Intini begrudgingly admitted that Ms declaration in his motion was a lie: Golab was neither a party to Hurt’s malpractice lawsuit, nor was Ms name mentioned in the judgment.

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Bluebook (online)
18 F. App'x 411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-intini-ca7-2001.