Minooka Businessman Who Bilked Will County Investors and Ensnared A Local Church For Thousands By The SEC Is Sentenced

A Minooka businessman has been sentenced to seven and a half years in federal prison after being convicted of wire fraud last year.

Fifty-three year old Ken Courtright, the owner of Today’s Growth Consultant, was sentenced on Thursday but restitution will be decided at a later date according to Joseph Fitzpatrick, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. The Grundy County businessman was sentenced for taking part in a scheme to fraudulently raise at least 130-million dollars from more than 500 investors.

Meanwhile, the SEC this past summer filed a lawsuit against Messiah Lutheran Church in Joliet to pay back 487-thousand dollars related to Courtright. Over the years Courtright had donated more than 780-thousand dollars to the church and the Securities and Exchange Commission demanded that Messiah Lutheran pay most of that back by November 15th. The church was able to raise the money through donations.