McHenry County Blog

A press release from Congressman Peter Roskam:

Roskam, Ways and Means GOP Raise Questions on HHS Soliciting Donations

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-06) along with Ways and Means Republicans sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on her solicitation of outside groups to promote and support the Affordable Care Act.

Peter Roskam

Congressman Roskam released this statement:

“On October 1, 2013, the health care law’s exchanges are due to open, forcing millions of Americans into a new government-run insurance market.

“However, the closer we get to October 1, it is clear that the exchanges were not properly funded in the health care law and to make up the difference, HHS has been siphoning funds from other parts of the law without proper authorization.

“To make matters worse, apparently Secretary Sebelius is now fundraising for the exchanges from the very groups she will be regulating and while implementing Obamacare.

“This is just another example of the HHS Secretary’s willingness to cut corners and skirt the law while implementing the unpopular health care law.”

The letter to Secretary Sebelius states:

“You have publically cited your authority and willingness to force rate reductions on the same companies that the Washington Post reports you have requested contribute to your favored ObamaCare promotional groups….

“Your fundraising from groups that may apply to receive federal grants as ‘navigators’ and ’non-navigator assistors’ creates the appearance that giving money to meet ObamaCare’s funding needs will result in more favorable consideration of a grant application.”

Read the full letter here.

Read the Washington Post article here.

Before reading this press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office on a second inner city Democratic Party State Rep. under Federal indictment, reflect upon the 2006 date for which he is charged with using ill-gotten money to pay for campaign expenses.

And that doesn’t count the seemingly pending indictment of ex-U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.

The crime is similar to the one that got Algonquin’s Tyvek Towers developer indicted just before Thanksgiving.

There are many indictments coming down from the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office which have crimes that date back that to 2006. Patrick Fitzgerald seems to have left a lot of unfiled cases when he retired this summer.

LASHAWN FORD, ILLINOIS STATE REP., INDICTED ON FEDERAL BANK FRAUD CHARGES RELATED TO REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS

State Rep. LaShawn Ford (D-Chicago)

CHICAGO — LaShawn K. Ford, an Illinois State Representative who also invested in real estate in Chicago, was indicted today on federal bank fraud and related charges for allegedly

• fraudulently obtaining a $500,000 increase and
• a two-year extension on a line of credit

from the failed ShoreBank and obtaining multiple advances by making false statements about his intended use of the funds.

Ford, 40, of Chicago, who operated Ford Desired Real Estate, Inc., and also invested personally in real estate, purportedly obtained bank funds to rehabilitate specific investment properties in the city, but instead used the funds to pay unrelated expenses, including,

• car loans,
• credit cards,
• other mortgages held at ShoreBank,
• payments to a casino in Hammond, Ind., and
• for his 2006 campaign for Illinois State Representative,

the indictment alleges. The charges do not involve Ford’s position as a state legislator after he was first elected in 2006. Ford represents Illinois’ 8th House District, which includes portions of Chicago’s west side and several western suburbs in Cook County.

Ford was charged with eight counts of bank fraud and nine counts of submitting false information to the bank in a 17-count indictment returned today by a federal grand jury. Chicago-based ShoreBank failed in August 2010 and now operates as Urban Partnership Bank.

Ford will be arraigned on a later date to be determined in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

The indictment was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and William C. Monroe, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to the indictment, Ford had multiple loans with ShoreBank, including a $1 million line of credit, which he was permitted to use solely to purchase and rehabilitate investment properties. On May 22, 2006, he obtained a $500,000 increase — to $1.5 million, and a two-year extension of the credit line, allegedly by submitting false tax return documents that inflated his personal and business income.

On seven different occasions between April 2006 and March 2007, Ford applied for and obtained a total of $373,500 in advances from the credit line, allegedly by making false statements that he intended to use the funds to rehabilitate six different investment properties on the city’s west side.

In each instance, however, Ford allegedly knew that he intended to use the funds, in part, for expenses unrelated to the specific rehabilitation projects.

The indictment seeks forfeiture of approximately $832,000.

Each count of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, and restitution is mandatory. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal sentencing statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Greg Deis and William Ridgway.

The investigation falls under the umbrella of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. For more information on the task force, visit: www.StopFraud.gov.

An indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A press release from Congressman Joe Walsh:

Rep. Walsh Statement on 3rd Quarter Fundraising Figures

3rd quarter fundraising figures show Congressman Walsh on track to raise his goal of $2 million for the campaign cycle.

Most of Walsh’s support is once again local with 77% of individual contributions coming from within Illinois and 40% of total individual contributions coming from the new or old 8th district.

Duckworth only raised 3% from the new or old 8th district, once again raising more money from California and New York than from the 8th district.

Congressman Walsh stated, “I’m proud to once again have so much support from the 8th district and in Illinois. I believe in this election voters are responding to grassroots support and to those who commit to spending time making themselves accessible and hearing their concerns in the district.

Joe Walsh

“Ms. Duckworth on the other hand, has made it her priority to mingle with liberal elite donors and political insiders in New York and California.”

“It should not be lost on anyone that Ms. Duckworth received twice as much money from California than from the 8th district,” Walsh continued.

“It’s too bad she isn’t running out there.

“Clearly her support is stronger there, where she shares their out of touch liberal ideology.

“Here in the 8th, this strategy is costing Ms. Duckworth.

“Despite spending $1.5 million last quarter, Ms. Duckworth finds herself down in the polls.

“The people in the 8th district are beginning to see her as out of touch and are learning about her failed record as a Blagojevich bureaucrat.”

Walsh concluded, “Now Ms. Duckworth has shifted to desperate negative attacks, but I believe voters will reject this approach, as they did in 2010.

“Former Congresswoman Melissa Bean outspent me 5 to 1, and like Tammy Duckworth spent all of her resources on negative attacks.

“This election is too important, and the voters can see through Ms. Duckworth’s negative attacks.”

In addition, the Duckworth campaign failed to report their quarterly totals by the October 15 FEC deadline.

This continues a pattern of behavior for Duckworth, where at the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs she was cited by the Illinois Auditor General for misfiling and misreporting funds including a $4 million grant program.

The Walsh campaign has filed a complaint with the FEC to investigate this matter.

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The Chicago Tribune reports that Duckworth raised about $1.5 million, compared to Walsh’s $251,000. Also that Duckworth started the month with $752,000 to Walsh’s $592,000.

When 2nd District County Board member Donna Kurtz sent out her Wednesday fund raiser invitation, it wasn’t really clear how to find its Park Place location.

It’s at the corner of Woodstock and Oak Streets between Route 176 and Crystal Lake Avenue.

In any event, the details are below:

Click to enlarge.

It will be interesting to see if all three candidates for McHenry County Sheriff in 2014 show up, as they did at Saturday’s Nunda Township GOP Picnic.

The date is October 4th, a Thursday, Robert and Anna May Miller’s Annual Wine & Cheese Reception.

Anna May is running for re-election to the McHenry County Board in District 1, while her husband Bob is running for re-election for Algonquin Township Road Commissioner.

The price is $35 a person or $60 a couple.

The event will be held at 1409 East Main Street in Cary.

If you would like to help State Senator Pam Althoff raise money to pay what amounts to a leadership assessment of $20,000 to help elect Republican State Senators elsewhere in Illinois where it is harder to raise money that here, September 13th is the date to save.

In many of the marginal districts which Republicans win, there is no tradition of giving cash to Republican candidates.

The event will be at the McHenry Country Club from 5:30-7.  The cost is $50 a person.

Details of Pam Althoff’s September 13th fund raiser. Click to enlarge.

If you want to help McHenry County Board member Tina Hill help raise money for her bid for re-election, save the afternoon of Saturday, August 25th.

That’s the day at John and Marilyn Krenger’s residence, 911 South Fleming Road, Bull Valley.  The event runs from 2-4.

The cost is $50 apiece.

Tina Hill’s fund raising invitation.

RSVPs are requested at 815-482-1582.

Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks is mining for gold in Chicago Wednesday night at the Paris Club, 59 W. Hubbard, Chicago.

Jack Franks photoshopped himself into this Paris, France, location in his invitation to a August 1, 2012, fund raiser at Chicago’s Paris Club.

The minimum price is $250 for the unopposed candidate for State Rep.

Unopposed because the McHenry County Republican Party didn’t want to unleash Tea Party activist Tonya Franklin on him.

The local GOP decided nobody was better than somebody.

Sort of a variation on the reply Abner Mikva got from a Chicago Ward Committeeman’s office when he went to volunteer as a University of Chicago student:

“We don’t want somebody nobody sent.”

Franks was overheard at the McHenry Fiesta Days Parade backing and filling when he was asked if he were going to vote to re-elected House Speaker Mike Madigan.

Mike Madigan’s name is on the top of Jack Franks’ Chicago fundraising invitation.

Take a look at the invitation.

Who’s name is right on top?

Michael J. Madigan.

What a surprise.

Other Chicago politicians asking folks to “join them in honoring State Representative Jack Franks” are Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Chicago Alderman Ed Burke.

The song “We Are Family” comes to mind.

Although the bottom price is $250, Franks is pitching for $5,000, the maximum one is now allowed to contribute unless one has money in a candidate or leadership Political Action Committee.

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Republican State Rep. Mike Tryon is holding a fund raiser the same Wednesday night in Huntley, which is located both in his old and new districts.

The bottom price is $40, but a $1,500+ contribution level is the highest listed.

The details of Tea Party activist Allen Skillicorn’s fundraiser for Congressman Joe Walsh appear below:

The fund raising event will be held Sunday, August 19th, in East Dundee. Click to enlarge.

The event will be held Sunday, August 19th, from 7-8:30 at 245 Dunridge Circle in East Dundee.

The price is $30.

Three of them, aparently

They had been reported when I did my story about his minimalist campaign disclosure, but I missed them because they were filed separately in the July-September reporting period.

These three contributions of over $1,000 were reported on July 8th. One would assume they were attributable to the June 30th fund raiser at Donley’s.  The threshold for electronic filing is $10,000 in a quarter.

The biggest was from Donley’s Banquets and Wild West Town.  It was for $5,657, presumably an in-kind contribution, even though that’s not the way it was reported.  Randy Donley is retiring from the McHenry County Board this year.

The number seemed high, so I called Donley.  He explained that the Zinke campaign paid “the raw cost of the food” and that the number reported included the profit that his banquet hall would have made had the full cost been charged, plus $15 a person for those who toured the Wild West Town.

Alliance Contractors, owned by Chuck Ruth, donated $1,200, as did John Cederlund.    Cederlund’s address was announced as the original location of the fundraiser.

For contributions under $1,000, folks will have to wait for the next quarterly report, which is due in mid-October.

Of additional interest to some will be that the campaign disclosure report was faxed from the Home State Bank, as you can see below:

The top line of this campaign disclosure report indicates it was faxed from the Home State Bank.