The federal investigation into the collapse of Bridgeport’s Washington Federal Bank has resulted in another conspirator receiving a lengthy prison sentence. 

Marek Matczuk, 61, of Park Ridge, was sentenced to 12 years and eleven months in prison.  Judge Virginia Kendall also ordered him to pay more than $5.9 million in restitution.

Matczuk’s defense attorney had sought four years, citing in part his client’s various health problems.

The 104-year-old Bridgeport-based bank was declared financially insolvent and shut down in 2017 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. An investigation by the OCC determined that the bank, which had $166 million in assets, was carrying at least $66 million in nonperforming loans on its books. 

In a fourth superseding filed in 2021, prosecutors alleged that as part of the conspiracy, bank officials “ma(d)e false entries in the books, reports and statements” of the bank in order to hide the true nature of the financial transactions from numerous federal regulatory agencies. 

Prosecutors say the funds embezzled were disguised as real estate development loan disbursements to several individuals who took out loans through their real estate development companies. Matczuk had an ownership interest in Mark M. Group, which was dissolved in 2018.

 “The conspirators were not required to repay these purported loans, and they never did,” prosecutors said.

Matczuk and three others were convicted after jury trials, while 10 defendants pleaded guilty and two entered into deferred prosecution agreements. Among those charged were the bank’s chief financial officer, treasurer, and other top employees, who were accused of conspiring to embezzle at least $31 million in bank funds.

Prosecutors labeled Matczuk “a member of the select group of customers who received embezzled funds from Washington Federal Bank for Savings through a conspiracy for more than a decade.”

According to prosecutors, Matczuk was Washington Federal CEO John F. Gembara’s “right hand man.” Gembara was found dead by suicide in a bedroom at Matczuk’s house in Park Ridge in Fall 2017, just days before the OCC closed Washington Federal.

Matczuk, prosecutors said, used the embezzled money to live on, pay for travel, pay his bills and “to fund improvements to (Gembara’s) home.” 

Matczuk admitted in a court filing that he “received millions of dollars, and even affirmed his signature on various bank forms when presented at trial.” Gembara, prosecutors say, “ then received part of that money back from Mr. Matczuk.”   

Much of the cash embezzled in the conspiracy was transferred to Chicago attorney Robert Kowalski and others outside the bank without adequate documentation and frequently without any documentation. Kowalski was sentenced in August to 25 years in federal prison following convictions on bankruptcy fraud, bank embezzlement, and false statement charges.

Kowalski’s sister, Jan, who is also an attorney, pleaded guilty and received a three-year sentence for enabling her brother to conceal more than $357,000 from creditors and the trustee in his bankruptcy case. 

Jan Kowalski was one of 10 defendants who agreed to plea deals with prosecutors. Three former members of Washington Federal’s Board of Directors pleaded guilty to conspiring to falsify bank records to deceive the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. William Mahon was sentenced to 18 months in prison. George Kozdemba was sentenced to a year in prison; and Janice Weston received a three-month prison sentence.

At the time of the bank’s closure, Mahon was a deputy commissioner in Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation, and a member of the 11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization. 

The six other defendants who entered into plea agreements with the government and pleaded guilty are: Boguslaw Kasprowicz, who obtained loans from the bank; bank CFO and Treasurer Rosallie Corvite; the bank’s corporate secretary Jane Iriondo, bank Vice President James R. Crotty; Loan Officer Cathy M. Torres; and Loan Servicer Alicia Mandujano. 

The federal investigation also ensnared then-Chicago Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, grandson of former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who was convicted of tax fraud and lying to regulators about a loan he owed to the bank. Daley, an attorney, has been disbarred and lost his seat on the City Council. 

In October, the U.S. Supreme Court indicated it would hear arguments in Daley’s appeal of his conviction.