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Storied Wisconsin Golf Course to be Auctioned as Seized Property

CHICAGO-Later this month, the U.S. government will auction a northeastern Wisconsin golf course formerly owned by Betty Loren-Maltese and five others recently convicted of robbing Cicero, IL, of millions.

By Dees Stribling | Updated on October 02, 2002

CHICAGO-The nine-hole Four Seasons Golf Club in Pembine, WI, now nearly 100 years old but recently refurbished, will be sold by public auction on October 23. The golf course was seized by IRS-Criminal Investigation in connection with the notorious multimillion-dollar insurance fraud case in Cicero, IL, a near western suburb of Chicago.

From 1992 to 1997, the Town of Cicero paid $33 million to Specialty Risk Consultants to administer a Town employee health insurance program. Specialty was a dummy corporation, and more than $12 million of this money was stolen by former Cicero town president Betty Loren-Maltese and her associates and used to buy and refurbish the Four Seasons, an Indiana horse farm, a vacation house, and several pricey cars. After a long trial that received a great deal of local media attention in Chicago, a federal jury convicted Loren-Maltese and the others of racketeering conspiracy.

The golf course will be sold under the terms of an interlocutory court order, meaning that proceeds from the sale will be put in escrow pending the final outcome of the forfeiture action. The property consists of the 63-acre public golf course, which is on Miscauno Island in the Menominee River, plus 127 acres on the Wisconsin side of the river, adjacent to the island. It also includes a clubhouse that was renovated in high style in the mid-90s by its crooked owners: besides mahogany paneling, chandeliers, and other interior details, it is appointed with expensive furniture, artwork and collectibles, such as a pair of golf shoes autographed by Michael Jordan.

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