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BANKRUPT BANKER

BANKRUPT BANKER

Jim Simon, will be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court. He was convicted of 20 counts in a 23-count federal indictment that accused him of multiple counts of tax fraud.

Posted by Fraser Trevor Monday 28 March 2011

“I am truly innocent of any attempt to evade taxes, launder money, commit fraud or any of the other things I am being accused of. … With my dying breath, I swear Jim and I are innocent.”

– Denise Simon, 2007

After writing a series of notes to her children and husband, Denise Simon, 50, took her life on Nov. 9, 2007. It was three days after armed IRS agents raided the family’s rented Chestnut Hills home.

Now more than three years later, her husband, Jim Simon, will be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court. He was convicted of 20 counts in a 23-count federal indictment that accused him of multiple counts of tax fraud.

Jim Simon, 60, is known in the area for his business ventures, as varied as satellites and juice. His first wife, Cosette Simon, worked in then-Mayor Win Moses’ administration and even served as mayor for a few days after Moses resigned amid a campaign-finance scandal.

Simon’s second wife, Denise, was known for her civic involvement and love of scrapbooking. At the time of her death, she was president of the Fort Wayne Chapter of the American Red Cross, and she also served on a number of other boards, including SCAN and Fort Wayne Early Childhood Alliance.

Of the business acquaintances and friends of Jim Simon, including his first wife, contacted for this story, only two were willing to be quoted. But some of those who remained anonymous said they were conflicted about the case and its outcome. They knew Simon to be extremely intelligent and generous.

Simon’s criminal attorney declined to make Simon available because of the pending case.

One who would talk on the record was Ben Eisbart, a vice president at Steel Dynamics Inc., who invested in Simon’s companies and knew him from work on area boards. Eisbart described Simon and his late wife as community-minded, generous and caring people.

“He was an active member of the community, one who participated in various organizations and was quite generous in his giving back to the community from which he generated his wealth,” Eisbart said.

There is now, however, a death and a conviction – a tragic end to this chapter of Jim Simon’s life as an accountant, inventor, political donor and entrepreneur, a multitimes bankrupt businessman and tax evader.

With so few people willing to speak, what’s left is a life outlined in hundreds of pages of court documents in state and federal cases, both here and elsewhere.

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