New Lenox man charged with swindling Shorewood couple

A New Lenox man faces more fraud charges that accuse him of swindling a Shorewood couple out of tens of thousands of dollars for work he never performed.

On Feb. 18, Judge Donald DeWilkins signed a warrant for 59-year-old William Vranicar’s arrest on charges of theft by deception, financial institution fraud, money laundering and home repair fraud.

Vranicar has already been in jail since that day following a lengthy investigation by the Will County Sheriff’s Office of several of his businesses: Express Cabinetry Incorporated, Top Notch Incorporated, and Express Kitchen and Bath.

Each of them have been operating out of the same location at 9500 Monee-Manhattan Road in Green Garden Township, police said.

Sheriff’s detectives determined that Vranicar used various schemes to steal money from customers, such as taking a deposit but never beginning a project, police said.

“On other occasions, Vranicar would begin the project by tearing down the customer’s old cabinetry and never installing the new cabinets ordered by the customer,” police said.

Some of the work Vranicar would actually complete was so unsatisfactory that “the work had to be redone by a different contractor,” police said.

“Detectives believe that dozens of Will County residents have been swindled by Vranicar’s schemes, exceeding well over $100,000.00,” police said.

The sheriff’s investigation resulted Vranicar facing charges of loan fraud, continuing financial crimes enterprise, theft by deception, money laundering, financial institution fraud, state benefits fraud and home repair fraud.

Prosecutors charged Vranicar with fraudulently securing an Economic Injury Disaster Loan worth over $1.9 million from the Small Business Administration, a federal agency.

The latest charges against Vranicar accused him of using deception to get a Shorewood couple to enter into a contract for a home repair project and inducing them to make payments totaling $17,000.

Besides the home repair fraud, Vranicar was receiving unemployment benefits from the Illinois Department of Employment Security as he was operating his business and collecting tens of thousands of dollars from residents in Will County, police said.

Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley praised his detectives’ investigation of Vranicar.

“The work done in this case and in similar financial cases should serve as a warning to those individuals wanting to scheme and exploit money from the hard working people of this county,” Kelley said.