Chicago alderman related to Daleys indicted for tax fraud
Chicago Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, related to both Mayor Daleys, faces federal charges stating he filed false tax returns and lied about $219,000 in payments from a neighborhood bank. Over 30 Chicago aldermen have been convicted or charged with corruption.
The grandson of former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley was charged April 29 with lying to federal bank regulators and filing false tax returns linked to $219,000 he received from a bank in his family’s neighborhood.
The seven-count indictment against Chicago Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, 11th Ward, stems from the demise of a bank in his family’s neighborhood of Bridgeport. Thompson, 51, owns his grandfather’s former house in the neighborhood and carries a strong resemblance to his grandfather.
The charges state the money was from loans and other payments between 2011 and 2014 from Washington Federal Bank for Savings, which was deemed insolvent and closed in 2017. There was a loan for $110,000, on which Thompson made one payment and then stopped, and then two other payments which were never placed in the bank’s bookts or recorded as loans, charges state.
The five tax charges state Thompson falsely claimed deductions for interest he claimed to be paying on the bank loans. Two charges claim he lied to the FDIC in 2018 about repaying the loans.
The bank had $66 million in bad loans when it went under.
His attorney could not be reached by the Chicago Tribune. An arraignment date had not been set.
Also on April 29, a federal grand jury indicted former Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz with fraud for using campaign funds for personal expenses. Charges state he spent funds on jewelry, clothing, cell phones, vacations, sports tickets, airline tickets and on a relative’s college tuition.
Chicago Ald. Ed Burke faces a 14-count indictment for corruption related to steering property tax appeals clients to his law firm in exchange for his intervention in city business. Burke is a cigar-chomping alderman with a taste for pinstripe suits who served over 50 years on the City Council, but lost his power over city finances after Mayor Lori Lightfoot was elected.
The Burke investigation revealed Ald. Danny Solis has a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney and is cooperating with federal investigators.
Over 30 Chicago aldermen have been linked to corruption cases since the 1970s.
Chicago was ranked the nation’s most corrupt city and Illinois is the second-most corrupt state. That corruption comes with a cost: $550 million a year in lost economic opportunities.
State lawmakers have an opportunity to fight Illinois’ culture of corruption, at least in the Statehouse, by adopting a group of ethics reforms. Those include empowering the watchdog charged with holding lawmakers accountable for wrongdoing, improving transparency by improving financial disclosures from lawmakers, prohibiting members of the General Assembly from working as lobbyists to executive agencies and local governments, and by requiring a cooling off period before lawmakers can become lobbyists to the General Assembly after leaving office.