Commission revokes local attorney’s license

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Updated: March 3, 2012 8:42AM

Roy D. Kessel, a Buffalo Grove attorney who practiced law using addresses in Deerfield and Arlington Heights, has been disbarred in Illinois and pleaded guilty in California to felony conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Kessel’s law license was revoked Jan. 13 after a hearing by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission found he engaged in misconduct by duping 93 clients out of $1.9 million in a “Ponzi scheme.”

Then, according to the U.S. District Court criminal case docket for the central district of California, Kessel — who pleaded innocent Dec. 5 to charges against him — pleaded guilty to wire fraud Jan. 17 before reaching his Jan. 31 trial date.

Judge Cormac J. Carney ordered Kessel’s $5,000 recognizance bond continued and his passport retained. Cormac also ordered Kessel not to leave the country and scheduled sentencing for Oct. 29.

“Mr. Kessel realizes that he made some mistakes. He needed to move forward. He has acknowledged his guilt and responsibility, and is looking forward to moving forward with his life,” said Michael L. Lipman of Duane Morris LLP in San Diego, one of Kessel’s California attorneys.

In Illinois, Kessel, 47, listed offices at the Kessel Law Group at 655 Deerfield Road, Suite 100, and at 3255 N. Arlington Heights Road, Suite 510.

The Deerfield address was a leased post office box at a Federal Express store that ended last year, according to employees. And the Arlington Heights office was abandoned a few months ago, said neighboring tenants.

Kessel also operated as “Bassetti Kessel, P.C.,” the “Law Office of Roy Kessel” and “Capital Law Group P.C.,” according to attorney Meriel Coleman, representing the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, which filed a breach of fiduciary duty complaint against him.

Beginning in November 2007, and continuing through November 2008, Kessel reportedly participated in a scheme by which he and others advised clients to invest in AG Capital Partners, LLC, a New Mexico company that also did business under the name of The Omicron Group, Coleman said.

Kessel was not only a partner in Omicrom, but his law firm acted as Omicrom’s legal counsel, she added.

He sold clients on making “investments loans” to Omicron to be used for “trading platforms” and other purported investment opportunities.

Coleman noted that Kessel also told investors, both orally and in writing, that:

• Omicron would use their money to invest in trading platforms;

• The investors could expect an annual return of more than 15 percent paid quarterly, or 60 percent of the net profits generated by Omicron;

• Their initial investments would be secure because none of their money would be placed directly in trade;

• The funds in the trading account would be leveraged by the trader and never touched;

• And investors could request withdrawals from their account that would be paid within 72 hours.

Kessel took about $1.92 million from investors and gave them loan agreements and promissory notes detailing the agreements, promising to repay the loans with investment returns in a year, Coleman said.

Then Kessel entered into escrow contracts with the investors in which he agreed that Bassetti Kessel, the Law Office of Roy Kessel, or Capital Law Group P.C. would act as escrow agent for Omicron’s “investment loans.”

He also requested and received at least $500 from each investor to act as escrow agent.

“By agreeing to act as escrow agent in connection with the purported investment loans, (Kessel) created a fiduciary relationship between himself and the investors whose funds he agreed to receive and hold in a separate, secure account,” Coleman said.

However, Kessel deposited $22.7 million, including the $1.9 million he received from investors, into one of the accounts only he controlled at National City Bank and Chase Bank, she added.

Kessel then made a series of disbursements and transfers to various accounts maintained by him and his business associates. He also used the money to make periodic payments of supposed interest and principal to investors. Those payments were not from the profits of the Omicron investments, but made with money obtained from other investors in what is commonly referred to as a “Ponzi scheme,” Coleman said.

Kessel had drawn the balances of seven bank accounts to zero, and the balance of another account to $44.42 as of March 31, 2009, she said.

As of the April 10, 2010, the date on the filing of the complaint, Kessel owed various investors $1.87 million, which represented the difference between the amounts he received from them and the amounts he had repaid to one investor.

In the meantime, the U.S. District Court of California stated that Kessel on Feb. 15, 2008 caused another person to wire a payment of $33,000 from a Well’s Fargo account in Brea, Calif., to The Capital Law Group at the National City Bank in Chicago.

“The defendant and others solicited investors nationwide and internationally to invest money in platforms and programs that purportedly traded in medium-term notes and bank debentures,” the California charges stated.

“Investors did not receive the promised 15 percent annual return on their investment. Instead, Omicron, through defendant and others, fabricated returns through password-protected Internet accounts to lull investors into believing that Omicron was a good investment and profitable.”

According to the website of Bassetti Kessel, Kessel has been a licensed attorney in Illinois since 1991 and started his own practice in 1997.

He has a bachelor’s of business administration in finance and marketing from the University of Wisconsin, and a law degree from the Northwestern University School of Law, where he was a “note and comment editor” for the Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business.

Kessel has represented numerous commercial finance clients and financial institutions in consumer and commercial collection cases. He also has been involved in sports marketing organizations and athletic representation.