A man convicted of threatening and assaulting a Chicago restaurateur while attempting to collect a loan has been sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison.
Federal prison sentence
According to federal prosecutors, Jawad Fakroune loaned the restaurateur around $405,000 to assist him construct and establish a new restaurant in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, as well as to satisfy certain tax responsibilities.
Prosecutors say Fakroune began threatening the restaurateur in November 2024 over loan payments. On the evening of November 25, 2024, he confronted the victim and demanded money, threatening the restaurant owner and his family.
During the encounter, prosecutors claim Fakroune choked, punched, and kicked the restaurateur while demanding reparations.
Earlier this year, a federal jury in Chicago found Fakroune, 46, guilty of two extortion-related offenses. Prosecutors claimed he also used the aliases “Angelino Escobar” and “Anjelino Escobar.” Fakroune is a foreign national who has recently lived in the Chicago region.
On June 30, United States District Judge Manish S. Shah sentenced Fakroune to 78 months in federal prison.
The case was disclosed by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, the FBI’s Chicago Field Office, and the IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago.
“The offenses of conviction reflect defendant’s violent nature, danger to the community, and lawlessness,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean Hennessy and Richard M. Rothblatt argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Business disputes are resolved in courts of law—not through violent confrontations in public restaurants.”
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