Former Lombard Businessman Sentenced To Eight Years In Federal Prison For Soliciting Murder To Erase An $8 Million Debt

CHICAGO — A former commercial real estate businessman was sentenced today to eight years in federal prison for soliciting the murder of a Texas businessman whom he owed an $8 million judgment. The defendant, DANIEL DVORKIN, was convicted of solicitation of murder and five counts of using a telephone and a car to commit a murder-for-hire following a week-long jury trial in August 2013 in U.S. District Court.

Dvorkin, 76, formerly of Lombard, was arrested in July 2012 and has been in federal custody since he was convicted last year. U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang imposed the sentence in Federal Court.

Dvorkin “was a calm, cool, collected businessman who negotiated the price of a hit man as though he were closing a real estate deal, who showed only real concern for his bank account over the life of [the victim],” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Heather K. McShain and Jeff Perconte argued in a government sentencing memo.

According to the evidence at trial, the victim obtained an $8 million judgment in February 2012 against Dvorkin and two of his businesses, and the judgment became collectible in May 2012 after the parties failed to settle through mediation. In April 2012, Dvorkin contacted an individual, who reported to local police and later to the FBI that Dvorkin had solicited him to hire a hit man to kill the victim over the $8 million judgment. The individual who Dvorkin solicited began cooperating with law enforcement and recorded a series of conversations and meetings with Dvorkin in furtherance of the murder-for-hire plot. Investigators feared that Dvorkin, after balking at the price being negotiated with the cooperating individual, had found a cheaper hit man who was not identified, and approached Dvorkin, who was later arrested in July 2012.

The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Oakbrook Terrace Police Department assisted in the investigation.