April 29, 2024
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Ex-Plainfield Township supervisor gets 3 years prison for money scheme

Township officials say audits show no loss of government funds

By Bob Okon
Plainfield Township Supervisor Tony Fremarek (center) speaks to the township highway commissioner Ken Marland on Wednesday at the Plainfield Township Administration Center in Plainfield.

Former Plainfield Township Supervisor Tony Fremarek (center) seen at a past meeting of the township board. (Eric Ginnard)

Former Plainfield Township Supervisor Tony Fremarek has been sentenced Feb.23 to three years in federal prison and ordered to make restitution of nearly $1.4 million.

The money was taken from the Schaumburn technology firm PSC Group, where Fremarek was a partner while pulling funds out of company bank accounts from 2013 to 2019, according to a plea agreement in the case.

Fremarek pleaded guilty in November to felony wire fraud.

The fraud began in April 2013, the same month Fremarek was first elected township supervisor. He resigned in 2021, after being indicted, pulling out of a reelection bid.

Audits at Plainfield Township have determined there was no misappropriation of funds there, officials have said.

The sentence orders him to surrender to authorities by April 25. He is to be sent to a federal prison in Oxford, Wisconsin.

Fremarek also was ordered to make restitution to Netrix, formerly PSC Group, in the amount of $1,370,165, which is how much he is believed to have taken from the company.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman’s sentencing order indicates Fremarek is believed to have the capability to make restitution. Gettleman also approved a forfeiture order that would allow federal authorities to seize assets if necessary to make the restitution.

The sentencing also requires three years of supervision after Fremarek’s release from prison.

Sentencing conditions include an employment restriction that bars Fremarek from “any position which permits unsupervised access to corporate financial assets and bookkeeping.”

Fremarek began taking money out of the company four months after becoming its chief financial officer. According the the plea agreement, Fremarek at one point informed his partners that one of the company bank accounts had been closed while taking money out of it for himself.

He had been with PSC Group since 2003.

Fremarek had been a Plainfield Township official since 2009, having first served a term as trustee before being elected supervisor.