18-month sentence given rooftop owner who cheated Cubs

By AP
Published

CHICAGO (AP) An 18-month prison sentence has been handed a man found guilty of defrauding the Chicago Cubs out of the team's cut of revenues from his rooftop club near Wrigley Field.

R. Marc Hamid was found guilty in July of multiple counts of mail fraud and illegal bank structuring for falsifying attendance records at the Skybox on Sheffield. The former co-owner of the club was accused of hiding over $1 million in revenue to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties to the Cubs and taxes.

In handing down the sentence Monday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin said Hamid ''had no reason to go out and commit these crimes.''

Before he was sentenced, the 48-year-old Hamid sobbed as he apologized to the Cubs as well as for the ''collateral damage'' he caused his family.