A Peoria man, Chad Duane Campen, age 35, has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for conducting a multi-year fraud scheme that targeted individuals, family farms, and financial institutions. The U.S. Attorney's Office revealed that Campen was handed a 135-month sentence on October 24, 2024, after being found guilty on multiple counts including bank fraud, wire fraud, and bankruptcy fraud, among others. His swath of deceit, which lasted between 2013 and 2021, was meticulously unraveled, leading to this conviction.
While his schemes were complex, the damage was brutally simple. Campen has managed to swindle more than $17 million, with nearly $5 million still missing. According to the Department of Justice, one of Campen's most egregious acts involved causing a family to lose their farm, which they had owned for over a century after they were fraudulently persuaded to invest in a nonexistent farming opportunity. The heartache of such loss can scarcely be measured in dollars and cents.
It wasn't just banks and families that fell into Campen's web of lies; entire communities felt the sting. Bartonville, Illinois, for instance, suffered a significant financial hit after Campen, alongside co-conspirator Richard Weiss, deceived the village into funding the demolition of a building on false pretenses. This stunt resulted in the village forfeiting an amount equivalent to half its annual property tax revenue. In a separate case, Weiss received a lighter sentence of 15 months due to his lesser involvement and being one more name on Campen's list of victims.
Attempts to hide his transgressions through bankruptcy court ultimately failed Campen. "Campen’s fraud was quickly detected by the professionals with the Office of the United States Trustee for Region 10," says the Department of Justice. They referred the case to the United States Attorney’s Office, which led to his indictment on seventeen counts in January 2022. Despite Campen's efforts to obtain bond through several motions and appeals, he has remained in custody—a fact unlikely to change as he begins to serve out his sentence.
The thick dossier of Campen's deceit has finally been closed with a fitting conclusion by the justice system. With his sentencing, those affected may begin to seek solace, if not full restitution, in the knowledge that their voices were heard and their plights recognized. Though the financial and emotional residuals of Campen's actions will not quickly fade, the sentence stands as a testament to the resiliency of those communities and individuals who withstood his endeavors to defraud them.
