CROWN POINT | Victims have criticized a plea agreement reached with a Crown Point businessman who squandered their life investments, but state and local prosecutors consider the outcome an overall success and a lesson learned for a sometimes-gullible public.
In writing to The Times following Monday's sentencing hearing for Daniel Swift, Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita said it's cases like Swift's that have driven his office to become more proactive in making the public aware that if an investment sounds too good to be true -- it probably is.
Similar white-collar crimes have risen by 25 percent in the last year with the economic downturn, according to state officials.
Swift had been charged with defrauding at least 13 Indiana and Illinois clients of more than $900,000 by selling them unregistered securities, in which he promised interest rates of up to 14.8 percent. Investors became suspicious more than five years ago and alerted Rokita's office, which handed the case over to Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter as required by law. In February 2009, Rokita said Carter used a new law to appoint members of Rokita's staff as special prosecutors.
In June, Swift agreed to a complex plea agreement in which he serves no time in state prison unless he misses four restitution payments. For eight years, he will work seven days a week in a work-release program in Lake County to make the payments. He will spend the remaining eight years on probation.
Victims said they doubted Swift, at 63 and self-employed, can follow through on the deal, but Jim Gavin, spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said the restitution amount of about $424,000 did represent every outstanding dollar as shown in charges filed by Lake County prosecutors. The state's special deputies, though appointed only in February, achieved a guilty plea within a matter of months, he said.
"(The plea agreement) does guarantee a conviction," Gavin said. "It guarantees a placement and has much stronger consequences than probation, which the judge had the discretion to impose."
Rokita called the outcome "extremely rare and positive" when compared with other white-collar crimes today. Swift's victims are getting far more of a return than those of Bernie Madoff, who received pennies on the dollar after losing billions, he said.
Carter, however, was less effusive, saying he was satisfied with the terms of the plea agreement yet understood the victim's displeasure.
"The plea agreement was brokered with the secretary of state's office with my supervision," Carter said. "Both offices met with the victims. We explained the problems, possibilities and options."
What was emphasized was the role of the prosecutor versus getting the money back, he said.
"Our main purpose is to get a conviction," he said. "We're not a collection agency."
Carter said the $900,000 loss was an accurate figure, reduced to less than half because some losses were found not to be within the five-year statute of limitations. Time had run out to amend the charges, he said. His office unsuccessfully sought Swift's cooperation in including those amounts in the restitution, he said.
Carter said the office was prepared to go to trial within the year required by law and sought only one continuance, unlike the defense, whose strategy was one of delay through repeated continuances.
"People stall for various reasons," Carter said. "The court knows that, and we know that."
