Former Municial Treasurer In Illinois Charged With Embezzling More Than $1 Million Over 20 Year Period

From the Cook County State's Attorney's Office on 8/15/2013:

The former treasurer of a suburban township school district that manages finances for multiple school districts and agencies in the western suburbs has been charged with stealing more than $1 million dollars from the organization over a 20 year period, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced today.

Robert Healy, 54, of LaGrange Highlands, served as the Treasurer of the Lyons Township Trustees of Schools for 24 years from 1988 through 2012.  He has been charged with Theft of Governmental Property, a Class X felony and Official Misconduct, a Class 3 felony for allegedly bilking the organization of  more than $1.5 million. If convicted, Healy faces up to 30 years in prison.  Healy resigned his position in September 2012.

The Lyons Township School’s Treasurer’s Office, located in LaGrange Park, manages more than $280 million in public funds on behalf of 13 school districts and agencies in the western suburbs of Cook County, including Western Springs, LaGrange Park, Lyons, Summit/Argo, LaGrange Highlands, Willow Springs, LaGrange, Burr Ridge, and Justice.  The districts serve over 21,000 school children.

According to prosecutors, the defendant was responsible for maintaining and managing all monies, books and papers belonging to the 13 schools districts and agencies under his control.  This process required Healy to invest school funds and to manage payroll for the 13 school districts and agencies. In his capacity as treasurer, the defendant was entrusted with access to school district funds, and authorized to sign checks and make withdrawals from school district bank accounts for legitimate school business.

Beginning in late 1989 and continuing through April 2012, prosecutors allege that Healy added unauthorized compensation to his bi-monthly paychecks, or issued himself additional salary and benefits totaling $630,346.78.  In addition, from February 2002 through April 2011, the defendant is alleged to have made 105 unauthorized wire transfers out of the Lyons Township Schools’ bank account to his personal bank account totaling $900,853.32.  Healy also made an unauthorized wire transfer in July 2011 to purchase a luxury automobile in the amount of $7,547.51 toward the down payment on the vehicle’s lease.

According to court documents, the total of all unauthorized payments made by defendant, either by check or wire to the defendant or on his behalf was $1,538,747.61.

Healy was arrested on Wednesday and appeared for a bond hearing today at the George Leighton Criminal Courts Building in Chicago, where Cook County Judge James Brown set his bail at $100,000 and continued the case to September 4, 2013.

Maryland Man Sentenced To 15 Months For $1 Million Embezzlement Conspiracy Against The National Archives

James Clay Whitson, 45, of Nottingham, Maryland, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for embezzling nearly $1 million from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration where he had been employed as property management specialist. According to authorities, Whitson and a co-conspirator, Robert Caleb McCray, 44, of Silver Spring, Maryland, paid McCray's cleaning company for work that was never done or paid inflated rates, pocketing the difference. The two split the proceeds, according to prosecutors. The scheme reportedly spanned more than four years, from July 2002 to September 2006. McCray, who plead guilty in September, is also serving 15 months in prison. Whitson was also ordered to pay $958,280.64 in restitution. The two were originally indicted in August 2007 on 10 fraud counts.

Read the story here and here.

Read the DOJ's original announcement here.

Former Illinois Treasurer Sentenced In $266K Embezzlement Case

Donald W. Jacobs, 62, of Posen, Illinois was sentenced to six years in prison for embezzling $266,414 from the Posen Park District where he had been employed as treasurer. Jacobs, who was arrested last May, pleaded guilty to one count each of theft of government property and official misconduct. He had served as treasurer since 1995, according to reports. Prosecutors alleged that Jacobs used a variety of means to embezzle from the District: issuing himself 94 additional paychecks; issuing checks to a phony vendor he controlled called "D & D Services; and using District funds to pay his personal credit card bills and make mortgage payments. Jacobs' scheme reportedly spanned a five and a half year period, from March 2004 to December 2009.

Read the story here and here.

Army Captain Charged With $690K Theft & Money Laundering

US Army Capt. Michael Dung Nguyen, 28, of Ft. Lewis, Washington, was indicted today on charges of theft of government property and money laundering in connection with his alleged theft of more than $690,000 that was entrusted to him while serving as battalion Civil Affairs Officer in Muqdadiyah, Iraq. The alleged theft occurred between April 2007 and February 2009. Nguyen mailed the funds to his home in Oregon prior to his return from Iraq and, once home, proceeded to deposit the cash in a variety of different banks and spent money to purchase vehicles, computers, electronics, furniture and other personal items.

Read the story here.

Read the DOJ announcement here.