Glencoe Man Gets 10 Years for Northbrook Business Fraud

Kenneth Dachman, a Glencoe man who defrauded 51 investors out of more than $4 million over two years, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, according to a U.S. justice department press release. 

The former Lake Forest resident funded his family's lavish lifestyle using investments for a now-defunct sleep disorder treatment center in Northbrook, the release said. 

Three of his investment victims told the judge at the sentencing hearing that Dachman’s scheme had seriously affected their lives and retirement security, according to the justice department.

“His business was not sleep apnea but putting money in his pocket,” U.S. District Judge James Zagel said in imposing the sentence, according to the release.  

Dachman pled guilty to 11 counts of wire fraud in October. According to the justice department, Dachman used the investors' money "to buy a two-acre mansion in Lake Forest, to operate a tattoo parlor in Chicago that was co-owned by his son-in-law, to purchase vacations and cruises for himself and his family to Italy, Nevada, Florida and Alaska, to purchase a new sport utility vehicle, to fund personal gambling in Las Vegas and stock trading, and to purchase rare books and antiques."

"I choose to admit my guilt," Dachman stated in a plea declaration filed with the court, "to being accountable for soliciting money from investors on the premise and condition that the money would be directed to the startup and nurturing of the business (Central Sleep) when in fact the majority of the money went to my personal benefit," the Chicago Tribune reports.

Dachman was dubbed a "serial financial predator", the Tribune reports, after the discovery of Dachman's pattern of creating a business, finding investors, using the money for personal use, declaring bankruptcy to avoid debt repayment and then repeating the cycle with a new business.