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Ex-County Board Chairman To Be Released From Prison

Sorensen walks through courthouse
Ryan Denham
/
WGLT
Former McLean County Board chair Matt Sorensen leaves the Dirksen federal courthouse in Chicago after his sentencing Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017.

UPDATED 11:20 a.m. | Former McLean County Board chairman Matt Sorensen is expected to be released from federal custody this month after serving his one-year sentence for defrauding State Farm and one of its consultants.

Sorensen served his sentence at a low- and medium-security federal prison in Marion in southern Illinois, starting in September 2017. He was transferred from Marion to a halfway house overseen by the Chicago Residential Re-Entry Management (RRM) office on Sept. 17, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. 

Sorensen was sentenced in 2017 to one year and a day in prison, plus shared restitution with another defendant totaling $490,975. Sorensen pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in the scheme after being indicted in 2016. The charges stunned Bloomington-Normal, in a case that ensnared one of the county’s top Republican leaders and its largest employer, State Farm.

Sorensen worked as an internal consultant for State Farm, helping the Bloomington-based insurer decide which outside consultants to use. The other defendant, Navdeep Arora, worked for McKinsey & Company, the largest consulting firm in the world. Prosecutors say they engaged in a fraudulent billing scheme that lasted for at least three years, using a fake consulting company and fraudulent invoices to steal from State Farm and McKinsey. The scheme cost State Farm nearly $500,000.

After his release, Sorensen will be on probation for one year. The restitution has been paid in full, said Sorensen's attorney Stuart Chanen. Sorensen is "very pleased to be returning home and is grateful for the support of his family throughout this entire process," Chanen told GLT.

“When he returns, Matt will continue to help others in the community as both a business consultant and through public service, as he has always done, both before and after these matters came to light," he said.

Sorensen did not respond to a letter sent to him in prison by GLT, seeking comment on his post-release plans.

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Ryan Denham is the digital content director for WGLT.
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