Judge Reduces Prison Sentence of Chicago Insurance Mogul

A federal judge has spared a former Chicago executive the necessity of serving the final few months of his prison sentence for stealing millions from his insurance brokerage.

U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo, citing glowing reports of his behavior in prison, re-sentenced 69-year-old Michael Segal to the nearly eight years he has spent in prison, eliminating the final four months he was due to serve.

Segal was convicted of looting more than $20 million from the now-dissolved Near North Insurance Brokerage, using the money to support a lavish lifestyle.

Segal was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2005 for racketeering, fraud and embezzlement. The jury also ordered Segal to forfeit $30 million.

Segal was released from federal prison in Oxford, Wis., to the custody of his lawyers.

Near North, a provider of property, life, health and workers’ compensation coverages, was a privately-held company with sales reportedly exceeding $100 million annually. Among its clients were several high-profile trade associations in the Washington, D.C. area.

While he was still under federal indictment for insurance fraud, mail fraud and racketeering, Segal arranged to sell Near North‘s insurance brokerage operations to Frontenac Co., a private equity investment firm also based in Chicago.

The same jury that convicted Segal found the Near North Insurance Brokerage also guilty of mail fraud, making false statements and embezzlement. The Associated Press reported that a federal judge in 2005 ordered the brokerage firm to pay a fine of $1.4 million.