Good morning, Chicago.
By the time the FBI raided Robert Powell’s luxurious Highland Park home three years ago, what agents saw as the red flags of fraud were everywhere.
The 23-year-old Powell was living alone on the North Shore despite having no legitimate income, according to federal court records obtained by the Tribune. He had a $150,000 BMW in the garage but rarely went out. One day, a letter carrier found six grand in cash in Powell’s mailbox.
He was also believed to be involved with a violent Indiana-based gang known as the “ChoppaBoyz,” whose founding members were under indictment in a drug-related home invasion in South Bend and also were accused of robbing two of Powell’s associates in Utah as they carried a quarter of a million dollars in fraud proceeds back to Indiana, the affidavit stated.
But the only charge that ever surfaced against Powell was a misdemeanor gun count filed in Lake County. Until now.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Jason Meisner.
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