City Employee Sentenced to 21 Months in Federal Prison for Bribery
August 27, 2010 - A City of Chicago employee was sentenced to 21 months in prison today for bribery. Tom Ziroli, a 64 year old former Ventilation Inspector with the Department of Buildings, was also sentenced to two years of supervised release, a $15,000 fine, an additional $100 special assessment, and will be required to pay back $500 in government money used during the investigation. Ziroli was convicted in March of bribery, following a joint investigation by the Inspector General's Office (IGO), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
Read the news release... (pdf)
Former City Inspector Sentenced for Bribery
August 25, 2010 - A former senior inspector with the City of Chicago Department of Environment was sentenced to one year and one day in prison yesterday.
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Former Ward Superintendent to Spend Nearly a Year in Jail for Vote Fraud
August 4, 2010 - A former superintendent in the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation was sentenced to 364 days in the Cook County Department of Corrections today. Anish Eapen, 39, was found guilty after on June 24 on multiple counts of vote fraud for attempting to persuade voters in the 50th Ward to vote by absentee ballot in two elections in 2007.
Read the news release (pdf)
Former City Worker Arraigned Theft, Official Misconduct, and Obstruction of Justice Charges
July 29, 2010 - A fourteen count indictment has been filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County charging a former City of Chicago employee with eight counts of theft, four counts of official misconduct, and two counts of obstruction of justice.
Inspector General's Office Quarterly Report
July 15, 2010 - The IGO today released the public report on the operations of the Inspector General's Office (IGO) during the second quarter of 2010, filed with the City Council pursuant to Section 2-156-120 of the Municipal Code of the City of Chicago. The report includes summaries of IGO investigations sustained this quarter.
Operation Crooked Code: City Zoning Investigator Sentenced to 31 Months for Bribery
July 6, 2010 - The City of Chicago Inspector General and the United States Attorney's Office announced that a City of Chicago Zoning Investigator was sentenced to 31 months in prison today to be followed by two years of supervised release as a result of his conviction for accepting a $500 bribe in exchange for providing a favorable zoning inspection report. Read more...
IGO News Release | Printer-friendly PDF
IGO Issues Report Concerning Overtime Payments
July 6, 2010 - The Inspector General's Office has issued a report and recommendation resulting from an ongoing investigation of overtime payments to exempt members of the Chicago Fire Department ("CFD") who are not included in Fire Fighters Local 2 Agreement with the City of Chicago. The investigation revealed that CFD exempt employees earned considerable overtime payments in the midst of dire economic times while the City is implementing sweeping budget cutbacks, including City-wide unpaid mandatory furlough days and holidays. The report recommends, among other things, a global audit of CFD overtime payments to exempt personnel and an analysis to determine how the skyrocketing payment of straight overtime payments can be dramatically curtailed or altogether eliminated while maintaining operationally-necessary staffing.
IGO Audit Report Findings and Recommendations to Address Inadequate Controls TIF Expenditures
June 29, 2010 - The Chicago Inspector General's Office ("IGO") released a report today, detailing an audit of processes and procedures related to Tax Increment Financing ("TIF") expenditures for the Central Loop and Central West TIF districts. The IGO's purpose was to test and evaluate activities performed to ensure effective and efficient operations, compliance with policies and procedures, and to evaluate the effectiveness of controls related to the payment of expenditures using TIF funds. In overview, the audit found that internal controls were not adequate to ensure effective management of the TIF expenditures we reviewed, as related to the State of Illinois TIF Act, 65 ILCS 5/11-74.4 et seq. ("The TIF Act").
City of Chicago Employee Convicted of Vote Fraud
June 24, 2010 - A ward superintendant for the City's Department of Streets and Sanitation and another man were convicted today for their attempts to tamper with absentee ballots and influence the results of the 2007 aldermanic elections. . The case is the result of a joint investigation by the City of Chicago Inspector General's Office and Cook County States Attorney's Office.
State's Attorney's Office News Release | Printer-friendly PDF
Former Executive Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Defraud the City in Bid-Rigging Attempt
June 3, 2010 - The former president of a Schaumburg based business admitted in federal court today to participating in a scheme to win a City contract using fraudulent documents and inflated bids. Douglas E. Ritter was to go on trial later this month, along with co-defendant Steven Fenzl, for multiple charges outlined in an April 2009 indictment. The charges were the result of a joint investigation between the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Chicago Inspector General's Office. Fenzl is still awaiting trial.
Read the DOJ News Release (PDF)
May 20, 2010 - Following numerous investigations uncovering fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the City's Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) program, the Inspector General's Office (IGO) conducted a program review to analyze the effectiveness of program administration and how actual participation in the program compares to statistics reported to the City Council and the public.
Read the IGO's analysis and recommendations for improving MWBE program administration...