Financial Adviser Charged With Swindling Man Wrongfully Convicted In 'Dixmoor 5' Case
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Shainne Sharp – one of the five men wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in the infamous "Dixmoor 5" case – got millions as part of a wrongful conviction settlement.
Sharp hired a financial adviser to get his life back. That adviser is now charged with stealing a good chunk of it.
CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported Monday on how Sharp was victimized twice.
On Nov. 19, 1991, Cateresa Matthews, 14, disappeared after leaving her grandmother's home. Her body was found weeks later in a field near Interstate 57.
She had been raped, and had been killed by a single gunshot wound to the mouth.
Five boys – Sharp, James Harden, Jonathan Barr, Robert Taylor, and Robert Veal – were charged and convicted in Cateresa's rape and murder. But DNA evidence later cleared the five young men of the charges, and they were exonerated and released.
The men's convictions were vacated in 2011, after DNA evidence implicated Willie Randolph, a convicted sex offender with no connection to the Dixmoor 5.
In 2014, the men received a federal settlement of $40 million against Illinois State Police. Sharp was awarded $5 million after serving 10 years.
A new federal complaint said that Sharp expected that money to "sustain him for the rest of his life."
But now, Sharp is a victim all over again.
Marcus E. Boggs – the man Sharp hired to watch over his finance – is accused of stealing all that money. Boggs was charged with a federal criminal complaint filed last week with scheming to defraud clients of millions of dollars to pay his personal expenses.
READ THE FEDERAL COMPLAINT AGAINST BOGGS
According to the complaint, Boggs met with Sharp periodically to talk about the performance of his investments and provide financial recommendations – and always assured Sharp that his accounts were performing well. Boggs also sometimes socialized with Sharp and Sharp's spouse, and Sharp described Boggs as being charming, the complaint said.
But suddenly in May 2018, Boggs contacted Sharp to tell him his "investment accounts had been depleted" and were being closed. Boggs claimed that Sharp had spent all the other funds in the accounts himself – and while Sharp did not believe he could have, he trusted Boggs, the complaint said.
But Boggs, a former Merrill Lynch financial adviser and a lavish jet-setter, ended up being flagged by his own company for "suspicious transfers."
In all, he is accused of swindling at least four clients out of more than $2 million – and a total of $815,000 from Sharp.
Having been wrongfully convicted and then losing what he earned, the toll of it all sent Sharp plummeting to rock bottom.
In the federal complaint, Sharp was only identified as "Victim A." But on the phone with De Mar on Monday night, Sharp confirmed that he was, in fact, Victim A.
He said he is hanging in there the best he can, but did not want to talk about the case at length at the advice of his lawyer.
