SPRINGFIELD – Victims of securities fraud in Illinois now have a much more realistic time frame for pursuing legal recourse under a bill sponsored by State Senator Steve Stadelman and signed earlier this month by Gov. Pat Quinn.

The bill amends the Illinois Securities Act of 1953 so that investors have three years from the time they learned or should have learned they were defrauded to seek relief. Under the 1953 regulations, fraud victims only were eligible to attempt to recover their investments within five years of the time they purchased the securities.

"It is entirely possible for people of modest means to lose their life savings and have no knowledge they were being preyed upon until many years later," said Stadelman, D-34, the bill's sponsor in the Illinois Senate.

"The old regulations add insult to injury by providing no avenue to recover losses if the fraud went undetected for more than five years. Fair is fair," Stadelman said. "Not only do these revisions give victims a fighting chance to reclaim their hard-earned savings, they reduce the ability for perpetrators of long-term financial schemes to avoid civil liability."

High-profile cases such as the federal prosecution of Bernie Madoff demonstrate how even the largest investment scams can go undetected over long periods of time. In Illinois, the Secretary of State Securities Department receives hundreds of complaints each year from investors, many of whom are senior citizens who have been with the broker or investment adviser for years.