More State Licenses for Sale

I’d have used the word “alleged” in headline, but that would have made it longer.

Now a Illinois Department of Public Health private sanitarian (restaurant worker) license examiner is charging restaurant owners something in the neighborhood of $300 a certificate. No exam required.

Look what just came from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago:

Please see the attached criminal complaint that was unsealed late yesterday following the arrest earlier in the day of Maryanne Koll, 64, of Burr Ridge, who owns and operates Kollmar Food Safety from her home, where law enforcement agents executed a federal search warrant yesterday.

Koll was charged with mail fraud and released on her own recognizance after appearing late yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Mason in U.S. District Court. A status hearing was set for 9:30 a.m. on June 18.

According to the complaint, from at least early 2005 through May 2007, Koll and others engaged in a fraud scheme by arranging to provide State of Illinois and City of Chicago Food Service Sanitation Manager Certificates to an unspecified number of individuals who were not entitled to receive them.

Koll, who is authorized by the state to teach Sanitation Certificate courses and administer exams, allegedly submitted false forms to the Illinois Department of Public Health, representing that a certain number of individuals would be taking a Sanitation Certificate exam to be administered by Koll at a designated place and time.

In response to each form, Koll caused to be shipped from the IDPH a specifically requested number of Sanitation Certificate Exam Books, which were the exclusive property of the state and were intended by the IDPH to be used for the specific purpose of testing an individual’s knowledge of topics relating to food service, preparation, and sanitation.

Upon receiving the exam books from the IDPH, Koll and/or others allegedly fraudulently completed the Sanitation Certificate exam answer sheets for individuals, ensuring that they would pass the course and exam necessary to obtain an Illinois Sanitation Certificate.

Koll then sent via mail or commercial interstate carrier a class enrollment form, the exam books, the answer sheets, and an attendance list to the IDPH, falsely representing that the individuals listed on the documentation had taken the course and exam necessary to obtain a Sanitation Certificate.

The IDPH would ultimately ship via commercial interstate carrier Illinois Sanitation Certificates to the individuals listed on the documentation, entitling the individuals to serve and prepare food in food establishments.

In exchange for fraudulently arranging to provide State of Illinois and City of Chicago Sanitation Certificates, these individuals paid money — in some instances detailed in the complaint approximately $300 — to Koll and/or her co-schemers, the complaint alleges…

The investigation is continuing, they said. The case is being prosecuted in Court by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle Nasser Weiss and Tinos Diamantatos.
If convicted, mail fraud caries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The public is reminded that a complaint 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.


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