Sometimes he introduced himself as the son of infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, or claimed to be a made man in the mafia, federal prosecutors say.
To many, he seemed like a charming and successful businessman, someone who could walk into any high-end steakhouse in downtown Chicago and know everybody who was anybody. He wined and dined sophisticated women, palled around with Chicago cops, and told people he had a vast portfolio of businesses, real estate and restaurants, according to prosecutors.
But in reality, prosecutors say, Jawad Fakroune is a convicted con man who used fake identities, false promises and, at times, threats and violence to further his criminal schemes and lead a lavish lifestyle.
The facade began to crumble in spectacular fashion in November 2024, when Fakroune allegedly beat up a well-known Chicago-area restaurateur over a purported $1.5 million debt and threatened to kill him and his family, according to court records.
Fakroune, suspecting that the FBI was onto him, left the Chicago area after the incident, prosecutors say. But three weeks later, authorities knocked on the door of the New York apartment where Fakroune was staying and he fled nearly naked out a back door as two female acquaintances watched in shock, prosecutors alleged.
A surveillance image allegedly captured Jawad Fakroune, left, threatening and then beating a Chicago restaurateur on Nov. 25, 2024, over repayment of a $120,000 loan. Fakroune was charged with extortion and flight to avoid prosecution. The image contains areas reacted in the court filing. (U.S. attorney’s office)
He ran shoeless down the chilly streets of Manhattan for nearly a mile with nothing but a black plastic bag over his head before entering a high-end Italian restaurant, claiming he’d been robbed — an incident that was captured on surveillance footage, according to court records.
Now, Fakroune, 47, a Moroccan national also known as Angelino Escobar, Giovanni Costello and a host of other aliases, is going on trial in Chicago on extortion charges relating to the beating at Yours Truly, a now-defunct martini and oyster bar on North Wells Street in River North.
He’s also charged with fraud and tax evasion in a separate indictment alleging he bilked millions from investors who’d been promised handsome returns on various ventures, including a marijuana-growing operation, coffee shops and a Mexican restaurant, court records show.
The trial is expected to offer a fascinating window into Fakroune’s alleged life of crime and the people he encountered, from well-known Chicago restaurateurs to sports figures and a former aide to Gov. JB Pritzker.
But it’s unclear how much detail will be presented to the jury. No witness list has been publicly posted for either side, and U.S. District Judge Manish Shah last week reversed his prior ruling and said evidence of Fakroune’s seminaked escape in New York cannot be used by prosecutors to show consciousness of guilt. There will also be no mention to the jury of Fakroune’s other pending fraud case.
Fakroune’s attorney, Damon Cheronis, has said in court filings that much of the case will come down to a simple legal question of whether the money Fakroune was allegedly trying to collect on the day of the beating was in fact an extension of credit — which is a required element to prove collection of a debt by extortionate means — rather than just a business deal gone bad.
Cheronis is also expected to attack the credibility of the government’s star witness, restaurateur Adolfo Garcia, who is known for a string of popular eateries and bars from downtown Chicago to Lincoln Park and the North Shore.
A subpoena obtained by the Tribune through an open-records request showed Cheronis sought liquor license and ownership records for a total of eight restaurants associated with Garcia between 2020 and 2025.
Garcia was not seriously injured in the attack, which was captured on surveillance video as well as in an audio recording by Garcia, both of which will be played for the jury. He could not be reached for comment Friday.
An early case
Records show that Fakroune immigrated to the United States in the early 2000s and settled in New York. By 2008, he had already racked up a felony conviction under the fictitious name Foudel Ban Abdrahime on counts of bribery of a public servant, identity theft, criminal possession of stolen property, fraud and grand larceny.
Fakroune served about four years in prison and was released in 2012. According to an FBI search warrant affidavit, he was still on parole when he disappeared from the radar of New York officials, who last had contact with him on May 24, 2013. The New York Department of Corrections still considers him “to be an absconder,” the affidavit stated.
It’s unclear when exactly when Fakroune came to Chicago, but prosecutors have alleged he traveled through O’Hare International Airport to and from Morocco with his sister at least twice in the early 2020s, around the same time he was allegedly collecting millions from investors and spending the money on luxury watches, Cadillacs and other personal items.
According to prosecutors, Garcia first was introduced to Fakroune at some point in 2021 and the two quickly went into business together, with Fakroune investing around $450,000 in several restaurants, including one venture in Highland Park as well as Yours Truly.
Fakroune falsely told Garcia that some of the money had come from silent partners with ties to organized crime, according to prosecutors.
By 2024, only one of the restaurants, Americano in Lincoln Park, was still operational, according to prosecutors. Garcia repaid Fakroune about $40,000 of his investment in that establishment, with an agreement to repay the remaining $110,000 in installments.
Garcia, who around this time went to the FBI, made payments through October 2024, but then stopped, leading to a flurry of calls between him and Fakroune that were secretly being wiretapped, court records show.
In one call from Nov. 12, 2024, Fakroune grew increasingly agitated, telling Garcia to “quit saying names” of investors over the phone, court records show.
“Why?” Garica answered. “What are we doing (expletive) wrong? I thought we were doing something legit? Like what are you talking about?”
After Fakroune again implored him to be careful about what he says, Garcia replied: “(I) think you watch too many (expletive) gangster movies.”
“I don’t watch. I live in it,” Fakroune allegedly told him. “The difference between you and me, my friend? I’m on it. I don’t think you on it.”
Two weeks after that call, on Nov. 25, 2024, Garcia delivered an $8,000 check to Fakroune’s assistant that was meant to serve as repayment for a portion of his debt to Fakroune, prosecutors alleged.
Fakroune, angry about the small amount of the payment, went to Yours Truly about 10 p.m. that night and confronted Garcia in the kitchen. Fakroune “demanded repayment of money that he believed was owed to him” and threatened to kill Garcia, his ex-wife and his children, prosecutors have alleged.
During the encounter, which lasted about 20 minutes, Fakroune choked, kicked, and punched Garcia, leaving bruising and abrasions, prosecutors say.
“I will murder you before they get me. You think I’m joking?” Fakroune asked as he followed Garcia around the kitchen.
“I’m not. I just want you to leave me alone, please,” Garcia said back.
Fakroune also seemed suspicious that Garcia was cooperating with law enforcement and that he was being recorded.
At one point he looked at the kitchen surveillance camera, pointed at himself, and asked: “You think I give a (expletive) they’re watching me? My (expletive) money! Look at me in the camera if you like it. One point five million in cash to this bitch.”
After Fakroune left, Garcia “drove around to hide” from him and “ultimately slept in his home with a kitchen knife next to his pillow in case (Fakroune) came to his home,” according to a recent prosecution filing. The FBI made arrangements the next day for him to stay at a hotel.
Meanwhile, Fakroune and Garcia continued to exchange texts and phone calls, during which Fakroune continued to threaten him, saying the beating “was nothing” and that if he did not get his money, Garcia would find out “the hard way,” according to prosecutors.
On the day after Thanksgiving, Fakroune allegedly called another acquaintance and said “the feds are on me” and that, if the FBI came by, to say they didn’t know him, according to prosecutors. Around that time, defendant went to New York and, though other associates, arranged to stay at an apartment on Laight Street on Manhattan’s Lower West Side.
A knock on the door
The FBI tracked him there, and on Dec. 18, 2024, agents knocked on the front door of the apartment. Fakroune, who was inside with his girlfriend and a female assistant, fled out the back door in just his underpants, at some point picking up a garbage back to cover his upper body, according to prosecutors.
“Defendant ran down the streets of Manhattan, without a shirt, pants, or shoes, draped in a black garbage bag,” prosecutors wrote in a recent filing. “This naked jaunt occurred days before winter began. Thereafter, defendant then traveled approximately a mile uptown shoeless, pantsless, and covered in a garbage bag, and entered an upscale Italian restaurant.”
Prosecutors said Fakroune had “connections” to the restaurant and knew the staff there. Surveillance images show him talking to the the server captain near the front door, still barefoot and in the trash bag. Fakroune claimed he’d been robbed, and the employee gave him some clothing and he left out a back door, according to prosecutors.
Back at the apartment, agents executed a search warrant and found multiple cellphones, two Glock handguns, ammunition, about $191,000 in cash, and six drivers licenses with various false names, court records show.
Prosecutors say Fakroune returned to the Chicago area soon after, but did not go back to any of his former residences. Instead, he persuaded a woman he knew, identified in court records only as Victim H, to sign a lease on his behalf for a residence in Michigan City, Indiana.
In return, Fakroune promised Victim H that he would double her money and repay her $300,000 in connection with a project involving a new Mexican restaurant or coffee shop, prosecutors alleged.
Fakroune was arrested by the FBI at the Michigan City residence on Jan. 18, 2025. At the house, they found a New York driver’s license in the name of “Costello Giovanni” and nearly $60,000 in cash, according to prosecutors.
Cheronis later filed repeated motions to have Fakroune released on bond pending trial, arguing that the underlying assault of Garcia was a misdemeanor at most, and that allegations of his dangerousness or risk of flight were overblown.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, told the judge a number of witnesses have described violent episodes in Fakroune’s past, including one where he broke a bottle in a stripper’s face, and another where he attacked a restaurant worker and broke his back.
The feds also pointed to a witness, identified as Individual A, who told the FBI he left guns at Fakroune’s house that were among the weapons seized from his apartment in New York, records show.
In response, Cheronis revealed that Individual A is a Chicago police officer who had falsely reported the guns stolen.
“Individual A, a Chicago Police Officer, sat down for a proffer, told the government that he reported the guns stolen, but failed to disclose that the police report he filed included lies,” Cheronis wrote in a court filing last June. “Then, his attorney called to notify the government that his client, Individual A, lied in the initial proffer, and that the police report may contain ‘inconsistencies’ with what he had told the FBI.”
Fakroune was denied bond and has been incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center while his cases are pending.
