Chicago judge says she was a victim of convicted extortionist who posed as cocaine king Pablo Escobar's son

A Cook County judge who presides over domestic violence cases says she was a victim of a convicted felon who posed as the son of a Colombian drug lord.

Jeanne Wrenn is among at least three influential women with whom Jawad Fakroune had relationships as he moved through Chicago social circles, befriending power brokers and celebrities including an NBA player, according to court records and interviews.

Fakroune, 46, was sentenced earlier this year on extortion charges in federal court in Chicago and now awaits sentencing in a separate, tax-fraud case.

The FBI says Fakroune, a Moroccan national, told acquaintances he's the son of Pablo Escobar, the late "king of cocaine" who led the Medellin cartel.

Wrenn — whose late uncle also was a judge and whose sister was a chief of staff to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel — hasn’t been named in the court proceedings related to Fakroune.

But she acknowledges she once had a relationship with Fakroune, telling the Chicago Sun-Times in a brief interview in her courtroom, “I’m a victim."

She referred any questions to Todd Pugh, her lawyer, who wouldn't say how they met, the nature of her relationship with Fakroune or how she was a victim.

“Your questions concern the subject matter of that pending federal prosecution,” Pugh says by email, pointing to the Illinois Code of Judicial Conduct, which he says “does not permit Judge Wrenn to answer them.”

Fakroune won't comment.

Provided

Attorney Lisa Duarte, a former top aide to Gov. JB Pritzker who is now a managing partner of a law firm, was in a relationship with Fakroune, federal authorities have said. Duarte also is a member of the hearing board for the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, which hears misconduct complaints against lawyers and can issue disciplinary sanctions.

Duarte handled financial transactions for Fakroune that later came under federal scrutiny, including filing his property taxes, court records show.

Court records say she was a former romantic partner of Fakroune. Her law firm objected to the characterization of the relationship, but did not deny they were involved.

Duarte also was a victim of Fakroune, according to the FBI, which says he got $168,000 from her in a gold investment scheme. She has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Illinois Secretary of State’s office.

Another woman who had a personal relationship with Fakroune, according to court testimony, was Patricia “Trisha” Rooney, a board member of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the government agency that owns Rate Field, the White Sox home stadium. Rooney, whose father was chief executive officer of Waste Management, dated Fakroune and was at a restaurant table with him when he pulled a gun on his business partner Adolfo Garcia, according to Garcia’s testimony in a trial.

Duarte and Rooney couldn’t be reached.

In federal court in Chicago in July, Fakroune was sentenced to prison in an extortion case for threatening to kill Garcia over a debt he was trying to collect.

Last month, Fakroune pleaded guilty in a separate, tax-fraud case and is awaiting sentencing Dec. 1.

He came to Chicago sometime after his release from prison in New York in 2012 and connected with a network of rich and powerful people, including restaurateur Phil Stefani and an unnamed NBA player who was bamboozled by Fakroune, according to federal authorities.

Fakroune frequented popular Chicago restaurants, including Chicago Cut Steakhouse and Gibson’s, where he rubbed shoulders with the city’s movers and shakers as well as sports and entertainment figures.

Among them was the NBA player, whom Fakroune was accused of fleecing. Reporters could not confirm his identity. In the summer of 2022, Tri Star Sports & Entertainment — a business management company known for representing members of reality TV’s Kardashian family — wired $2.45 million from the NBA player to a bank account controlled by Duarte, the FBI said in an affidavit for a search warrant.

Tri Star, which wasn’t accused of any wrongdoing, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Authorities said Fakroune falsely promised to invest the player’s money in cannabis and shipping container operations but instead spent it on his own homes in New York and in the Chicago area and on luxury cars and watches.

Duarte, who was identified only as Individual A in the FBI affidavit, wired $350,000 of the basketball player’s money to an unidentified restaurant and bar owner, $300,000 to a New York real estate developer for a property Fakroune was using and more than $1.2 million for Fakroune to buy a mansion in Lemont, court records show.

Federal authorities interviewed the player more than two years later, in November 2024 — and say he lied to them.

Fakroune called himself Angelino Escobar and would tell people he was related to Pablo Escobar, the drug lord killed in a shootout in 1993.

Getty Images

The NBA player told the FBI he’d never heard of Angelino Escobar and didn’t recognize his photo, records show.

But witnesses told investigators that Fakroune and the player dined and went to clubs together. And the FBI said their phones were in contact hundreds of times.

The tax-fraud case accused Fakroune of bilking the NBA player and others. Fakroune has pleaded guilty in that case, admitting that he failed to pay more than $6.6 million in state and federal income taxes.

Under his plea deal, Fakroune has agreed to a prison term of 12 to 42 months when he will be sentenced in December. That would be on top of the prison term he's already serving. Earlier this year, Fakroune was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in his separate extortion case for threatening and assaulting Garcia, the owner of a Lincoln Park restaurant called Americano Chicago.

Garcia had difficulty obtaining a liquor license for his restaurant, because he owed the state taxes — a hurdle he overcame when Duarte contacted state officials, according to court testimony.

When Duarte was an aide to Pritzker, she oversaw the Illinois Department of Revenue, which regulates liquor licenses. Fakroune lent Garcia about $405,000 to open the restaurant.

Fakroune later demanded that Garcia pay him $1.5 million and threatened to kill him if he didn’t. A hidden FBI camera captured Fakroune kicking Garcia in his attempt to get the money.